Tropfest goes international at Tribeca Film Festival
19 April 2006
The Tribeca Film Festival and John Polson, director (Swimfan, Hide & Seek) and founder of Tropfest, announced today the line-up for the first annual Tropfest@Tribeca, the exciting collaboration of the largest short film festival in the world and the fastest-growing film festival in North America.
Tropfest@Tribeca has been created in the spirit of the original Tropfest in Australia to recognise the critical role that short films play in the craft of filmmaking. The program encourages short film production by offering platforms for emerging filmmakers to create innovative works and showcase their films to diverse audiences.
Eight new short films made exclusively for Tropfest@Tribeca, all in competition, and eight Tropfest classic shorts, which have previously played at Tropfest in Australia, will be screened together the evening of Friday, April 28, 2006 at the Tribeca Drive In at the World Financial Centre.
Each of the finalist's films incorporates the Tropfest@Tribeca Signature Item, a manhole cover, which designates that it was made specifically for Tropfest@Tribeca. Following the guidelines of Polson's Tropfest, each film is under seven minutes in length and making its world premiere.
The Daily Show's Ed Helms will host the evening and a jury of seven judges: Darren Aronofsky, Caroline Baron, Matt Dillon, Famke Janssen, Anthony Lapaglia, Charles Randolph, and Naomi Watts will be on hand to screen the films and will select a Tropfest@Tribeca winner from the eight finalists. The winner will receive a cash award of $2,500 and Final Cut Pro software from Apple.
"Having built a Festival with a huge national following in Australia, it gives me great pride to bring this to the States and to Tribeca," said John Polson. "The quality of submissions demonstrates the desire to create original films. It is immensely gratifying to provide opportunities and an audience to a new generation of short filmmakers around the world."
"John Polson has created an original platform for emerging filmmakers," said Robert De Niro. "We are pleased to offer, along with John Polson, this distinctive cultural event to our Festival community."
