Earlier this week, members of the Tribeca team headed west to sunny California! While in Los Angeles, we scheduled meetings around town, interviewed lots of great talent, and threw a fantastic party. Most importantly, we reconnected with old friends and Festival alumni, and made plenty of new friends—namely, the new crop of TFF 2010 filmmakers!

Tribeca Senior Programmer Genna Terranova explained, "The best part for me was meeting the people in person behind the films that I have been speaking and writing about and to for months. It was also great to see filmmakers from last year's Festival, like Jac Schaeffer and Julien Nitzberg. You could really feel the Tribeca family expanding."



During a busy two days, the crew from the Web and Content teams interviewed 35 filmmakers from over 20 films. The first one has already been published: meet Maggie Kiley, director of TFF 2010 short film some boys don't leave.

The rest of these interviews—both print and video—will roll out over the next few weeks as we gear up for the Festival and introduce our readers to the people behind the scenes. Our new friends made short films (Cried Suicide, A .45 at 50th, A Border Story) and features (Open House, Just Like Us, The Space Between, and Meet Monica Velour), narratives (Snowmen, Every Day, Cookie, Athena) and docs (Out of Infamy: Michi Nishiura Weglyn).

We also interviewed Chris Messina, the lead actor in TFF 2010's Monogamy; the Julie & Julia star is stoked for his New York story to open here at Tribeca! Look for that interview soon.



While we were in L.A., the city was also buzzing about our two new initiatives: Tribeca Film Festival Virtual and Tribeca Film, both developed with Founding Partner American Express®. The director and the delightful kids from Spork—one of the feature films in the TFF Virtual Premium lineup—were the life of the party, and a terrific advertisement for the TFF Virtual Premium Pass. (Do you have yours yet?)

We also talked with the directors of three films (TiMER, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, and The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle) that will be available On Demand via Tribeca Film starting on April 21. At the party, Tribeca CCO Geoff Gilmore praised initiatives like Tribeca Film as new ways of thinking about film distribution. We were delighted Jessica Igoe from American Express was also able to join us, and she talked to the crowd about our longtime partnership and the growing ways in which we together are helping filmmakers find audiences for their work.



The party—held at Station at the W Hollywood, L.A.'s hottest new spot—had a terrific guest list, including Jessica Alba (TFF 2010's The Killer Inside Me), Vidal Sassoon (Vidal Sassoon The Movie), Emma Caulfield (TiMER), Christopher Lloyd (Snowmen), and Andrew Paquin (director of Open House), among others. A good time was had by all, as indicated by TFF Executive Director Nancy Schafer: "This is a terrific annual event we look forward to every year! This party is the place where we gather all our friends together to celebrate—both the new friends we have made by selecting their films to premiere at this year's Festival and the industry and filmmakers who have been friends of Tribeca for years."

From the West Coast to the West Side—see you at the Festival!