The “Killers of the Flower Moon” star and his longtime producing partner Jane Rosenthal reflect on 25 years of Tribeca.

Robert De Niro explains how Martin Scorsese and George Lucas helped launch the first Tribeca Festival after 9/11

The "Killers of the Flower Moon" star and his longtime producing partner Jane Rosenthal reflect on 25 years of Tribeca.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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June 1, 2026 11:30 a.m. ET

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George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Robert De Niro in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 8, 2024. Credit:

Joy Asico-Smith/CBS via Getty

- Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal share how Martin Scorsese helped provide a key piece of the inaugural Tribeca lineup in 2002.

- De Niro says that he has not discussed future collaborations with Scorsese at this point.

- The duo also explains how the festival shifted its plans to accommodate George Lucas' *Attack of the Clones*.

The first Tribeca Festival hinged on some major star power.

Robert De Niro and his longtime producing partner, Jane Rosenthal, are celebrating 25 years of Tribeca and reflecting on how two major filmmakers brought buzzy projects to the first iteration of the festival after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

De Niro tells ** that when he and Rosenthal were assembling the program for the first Tribeca, he knew his longtime friend and collaborator, Martin Scorsese, could be a powerful ally in getting the fest off the ground. "With all the things he does with film preservation, it's no surprise Marty has been part of it, period," the *Taxi Driver* star explains.

Scorsese was deep into post-production on his long-gestating historical crime epic, *Gangs of New York,* as De Niro and Rosenthal were prepping for the festival in early 2002. "I was trying to get the whole movie for the opening of the festival, but it was scheduled to go to Cannes," he says, noting that the film's producer, Harvey Weinstein, wanted the film to premiere at the buzzy French festival.

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro at the 2025 Tribeca Festival in New York City on June 5, 2025.

Michael Loccisano/Getty

"Harvey Weinstein didn't wanna give us the full film," Rosenthal confirms to EW. "They wanted to bring it to Cannes, and you understand that."

"I was trying to get it for the opening night, putting as much pressure as I could," De Niro says. "But understanding at the same time, there are other reasons [to consider]. And so they gave us a kind of a trailer to show."

As a result, Tribeca ended up with around 20 minutes of *Gangs of New York* as a taste of the 168-minute epic. "It went over well," De Niro says. "It wasn't the movie, but it was a nice gesture, let's put it that way."

"Marty helped announce the festival with us, and he has always been a great part of this festival," Rosenthal adds.

Has De Niro discussed reteaming with Scorsese on another movie? "We could, but not at this point, no," he says.

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Meanwhile, to close the first festival, De Niro and Rosenthal turned to another major work from a legendary Hollywood filmmaker: *Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones*, directed by George Lucas, which was scheduled to premiere worldwide on May 16.

"I asked George if we could have it," De Niro recalls. Lucas was game, but there was one major issue: the movie wasn't fully finished in post-production. "He said, 'Well, I want to have it finished by then.'"

The 'Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones' premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in May 2002.

Jim Spellman/WireImage

Rosenthal decided that it would be worth their while to wait for *Attack of the Clones*. "I remember Bob coming in and saying, 'Well, the movie's not gonna be ready for another two weeks,'" the producer recalls. "And I said, 'Okay, we'll change the date of the festival,' 'cause nobody was sitting here waiting for us!"

*Attack of the Clones* ultimately premiered at Tribeca on May 12, 2002, four days before it bowed around the world. The Tribeca screenings doubled as fundraisers for the Children's Aid Society, a charity that provided aid to the children of 9/11 victims.

Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal at the 2002 Tribeca Festival in New York City on May 7, 2002.

Richard Corkery / New York Daily News via Getty

Rosenthal still remembers the day of the attacks in vivid detail, as she was "racing into the office to have a meeting" on the morning of Sept. 11 when the first plane struck the north building of the Twin Towers.

"My car stopped on a yellow light a block and a half from the tower when the plane hit," she says. "So to me, it was about running out and getting home and getting to my kids, and that fear and people running in. And then I think I was haunted a bit by the fact that people ran in, and who are we who run out all the time? And it was, what could we do to do something for our community? Because we weren't the firefighters, the field workers, the rescue workers."

Rosenthal and De Niro recall the attacks scaring many New Yorkers away from Lower Manhattan. "I live on 72nd Street, and my neighbors wouldn't dare go downtown," Rosenthal says. "There was so much of an uptown-downtown divide."

Jane Rosenthal.

The duo wanted to launch the festival to revitalize the neighborhood. "So it really became: what could we do, and how quickly could we do it?" Rosenthal recalls. "I think our role at the beginning was really about our community, bringing people back downtown."

Twenty-five years later, the festival has grown into a permanent cultural fixture of downtown Manhattan, and this year's fest will kick off with the premiere of Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's new documentary *Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That's the Weight of the World).* How does De Niro hope it will transform over the *next* quarter-century?

"I never would've imagined where we would be politically with the city, the country, the whole state of everything," the *Goodfellas* star reflects. "So I would just want the festival to continue to be part of the tradition here in the city, come what may, in the city and even the country and everything else. And I hope it would shape shift, it would be different, and adapt to certain things, and defy and oppose things that are not right, and stand for what it does, as always."

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Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro in New York City on April 25, 2012.

Cindy Ord/Getty

De Niro remains extremely proud of Tribeca's endurance and its impact on the city. "The thing that is so amazing is that it's lasted all these years, and that people feel so good about it and being a part of it, whether they've been someone who has something in the festival or been part of the jury, or just coming to watch films or whatever else," he says. "The whole thing just makes me quite happy because we had no idea that it would last this long or be accepted. And my whole thing was that it's just part of the fabric of the city that goes on as a tradition for as long as the city is here."

He concludes, "It's an essential part of my legacy. How can it not be? I don't even know where to begin. The fact that you're celebrating a 25th anniversary — what else can you say?"

The 2026 Tribeca Festival will take place from June 3 to June 14 in New York City.

*These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.*

- Film Festivals

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Source: “EW Tribeca”