:mad: After debuting as a small festival focusing on independent films and intended to attract people to lower Manhattan following the trauma of 9/11, Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival is turning into a showcase for major studio releases. On Wednesday, the festival announced that it will premiere the Tom Cruise thriller Mission: Impossible III on May 3. In a statement, Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the festival, said, "Having the support of Tom Cruise and Paramount is a gift to us and the community." The festival had previously announced that it would open with Universal's United 93, about the 9/11 flight that crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching its target in Washington, and that it would also screen Warner Bros.' big-budget Poseidon on May 6. In reporting on the big-budget films' presentation at the festival, Daily Variety commented today (Thursday) that it reflects the "fact that de Niro and Rosenthal, while Gotham [New York]-based, are Hollywood power players who can use clout to get pics that other fest programmers can't." The previous Mission: Impossible sequel opened in 2000 at the Cannes Film Festival, which this year runs almost in tandem with Tribeca.

Hopefully all the D list celebs will show up for the free swag!

:mad:

Funny, I have the schedule and movie listings and did not notice it on there. I knew that the Dream Works movie Over The Hedge would debut at the Festival.

I am still going because there are a couple of movies that are being shown that I want to see. There is a French horror movie called Sheitan that really interests me.

Independant films are the best!! I wish I lived in New York, or some other big City, so I could attend one of these things. Hopefully one of these days I'll get to. It sounds like alot of fun.

Independant films are the best!! I wish I lived in New York, or some other big City, so I could attend one of these things. Hopefully one of these days I'll get to. It sounds like alot of fun.


It is a blast, one day I would like to try and check out Cannes.

It is a blast, one day I would like to try and check out Cannes.

That's really cool that you get to attend some of these events. It would be like heaven for me, if I could attend the Tribeca, or some of these other festivals. I'd also love to attend Cannes, as well as the Sundance film festival at some point in my life. Those are a couple of my long term dreams.

The best part of a film festival is the Q & A session after the film. You can sit there with an actor or a director and ask them questions about the film.