Tribeca Film Festival Adds Sports Component

NEW YORK (December 6, 2006) — The Tribeca Film Festival and ESPN have created a new showcase for independent sports films.

The Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival will debut as part of next year’s Tribeca Film Festival, scheduled for April 25-May 5. A slate of sports-related narrative and documentary features and short films will be included. There will also be panel discussions with filmmakers, actors and athletes.

“This brings together sports and film in an exciting way,” Robert De Niro, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, said in announcing the new event Wednesday.

“Independent film has grown exponentially in the last few years, and sports-themed films have grown with it,” said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president.

“Together, we hope to inspire filmmakers to make sports-themed films with this new platform in mind and thereby raise the level of the genre.”

The Tribeca fest has steadily grown in size since being founded in 2002 by De Niro and production partner Jane Rosenthal to help rejuvenate lower Manhattan after Sept. 11.

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