Robert De Niro Recalls Committing to Putting on Tribeca Festival in Weeks Following 9/11 (Exclusive)
Robert De Niro Recalls Committing to Putting on Tribeca Festival in Weeks Following 9/11 (Exclusive)
Angelique BrenesFri, September 11, 2026 at 2:29 AM UTC
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Robert De Niro at the People Inc. N.Y.C. headquarters for People TalksCredit: Adela Loconte / Shutterstock for People Inc. -
Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal announced the Tribeca Festival in November 2001, just months after 9/11
The inaugural festival brought more than 150,000 people back to downtown New York in 2002
De Niro and Rosenthal reflect on the festival’s origins in the new documentary Tribeca 25
Robert De Niro knew something had to be done in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.
In the weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, De Niro and his longtime producing partner Jane Rosenthal decided to move forward with an idea they had previously only discussed: creating a film festival in New York City’s downtown Tribeca neighborhood.
De Niro opened up about the origins of the Tribeca Film Festival alongside Tribeca Festival co-founder Rosenthal and Tribeca 25 director Matt Tyrnauer at the People Inc. headquarters in N.Y.C. on Thursday, Sept. 10, in an edition of People Talks, a new live talk series from People Inc. Rebecca Glashow, CEO of Tribeca Enterprises, was also in attendance to introduce the new documentary.
“We had talked about maybe doing a festival. It wasn’t really a serious conversation. We were sort of kicking it around,” De Niro told PEOPLE President Leah Wyar during the event. “And then when 9/11 happened, we wanted to revitalize the neighborhood, to say the least. And so we talked about actually doing it and we said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Just made the commitment.”
For Rosenthal, the decision was rooted in a desire to help rebuild a neighborhood that had been devastated by the attacks on the World Trade Center, even though neither she nor De Niro had any experience putting on a film festival.
“I mean, we felt we had to do something because I keep saying we weren’t firefighters or steel workers, so what could we do to help?” Rosenthal said. “Put on the screening, put on a show and try to provide a new memory.”
Robert DeNiro answers questions at a news conference for the Tribeca Film Festival May 8, 2002 in New York CityCredit: Keith Bedford/Getty
The pair announced the festival in November 2001 and held its inaugural event just months later, Rosenthal said. At the time, they had little experience with sponsorships and didn’t have established systems for putting on a festival. But they approached it the way they approached making movies.
“If we can produce a film, if we can prep a film in three months, you can prep a film festival. Why not?” Rosenthal said during the panel. “I mean, it was a producer’s mentality.”
“We had 120 days, 1,300 volunteers, no money, no blueprint, just an idea and a neighborhood that needed people back in it,” De Niro says in the exclusive first-look clip of Tribeca 25. “This wasn’t just about movies; it was about whether downtown was coming back.”
From left: Rebecca Glashow, Matt Tyrnauer, Keelin Ryan, Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Berry WelshCredit: Adela Loconte / Shutterstock for People Inc.
In the film, Rosenthal also discusses the difficulty of finding suitable theaters in the aftermath of the attacks. “Some of the toughest things were figuring out what movie theaters we could go into. We had to go in wearing hazmat suits,” she says in the film.
De Niro also reflects on the constant reminder of what had happened just blocks away in Tribeca 25.
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“Nobody slept much,” he says. “You looked out the window, and [the site of the Twin Towers] was still smoking. That kept things in perspective.”
Robert De Niro speaks onstage at the Director’s Brunch during the 2026 Tribeca FestivalCredit: Michael Loccisano/Getty
The festival ultimately opened on May 8, 2002, with its first year spanning five days and featuring 150 films selected from more than 10,000 submissions. More than 150,000 people returned to the neighborhood during the festival.
For Rosenthal, the goal was never simply to create another film festival.
“Our city had been attacked. It felt like this is what you had to do,” she says in Tribeca 25. “There was this mantra that we had whenever people would get upset about something or complain about something or whatever it was. We’d say, ‘Look left.’ That’s why we were doing it.”
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That original mission also shaped one of the festival’s earliest high-profile moments. De Niro suggested inviting Nelson Mandela, and he personally called the former South African president, Rosenthal recalls. Mandela had famously spoken about sharing a love of movies and film with his cellmates while incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, and finding commonality through watching them together.
The ultimate goal, she said on Thursday, was to establish the right tone for a city still grieving.
“He felt like we needed to set the proper tone to say, ‘It’s okay now to go from grieving to living in life,’” Rosenthal told Wyar.
From left: Robert De Niro, Matt Tyrnauer, Jane Rosenthal and Leah Wyar during People TalksCredit: Adela Loconte / Shutterstock for People Inc.
The film explores its history through archival footage and interviews with De Niro, Rosenthal, Martin Scorsese, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Whoopi Goldberg, Nas, Jon M. Chu, Nia DaCosta and Denis Leary.
Over the past two decades, the Tribeca Film Festival has become one of N.Y.C.’s defining cultural events, creating an estimated economic impact of over $1 billion for the city. Chu and DaCosta are among the festival’s notable alumni, as are Academy Award-winners Ryan Coogler and Damien Chazelle, who premiered their debut films there.
Tribeca 25 arrives on Netflix Friday, Sept. 11.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
