New York City's downtown film fest kicked off with a big gala hosted by Tribeca Films founders Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal last night. All anyone could talk about at the red carpet event was "environmental sustainability," the theme of the party, which was preceded by a series of eco-themed shorts introduced by the King of Environmental Films, Al Gore himself.
Celebrities are jumping on the Green bandwagon; at least the ones partying last night were... Christie Brinkley was saying she's been pushing recycling for years.
One surprising addition this year is a co-branded partnership with ESPN and a mini festival-within-a-festival of sports-themed independent films. The two ambassadors for this "sports fest," Tiki Barber -- who told me he's super-excited to join the NBC family -- and Billie Jean King met on the red carpet last night. Billie told me "sports is entertainment, so this totally makes sense."
And today Tribeca's CFO explained that from his perspective, sports films expand their demographic by bringing in more men, and a younger (male) audience. It's not necessarily an obvious partnership, but with 14 sports films at the festival this year, 12 of them premieres, it seems to be working.
More on the intersection of Wall Street and movies in a bit...
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