The Tribeca Film Institute successfully launched the First Annual Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Created by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, the mission of the Tribeca Film Festival is to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience. The Tribeca Film Festival was founded to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan. After only 120 days of planning and with the help of more than 1,300 volunteers, the inaugural Festival became a critical and popular success and was the springboard for what is now one of the leading annual film festivals in the world.

Through the years, hundreds of native films have made their world premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival, with generally half of the festival's total screenings making their debut. The obscurely independent find themselves screening alongside legendary directors like Woody Allen, and while the quantity of films has decreased in recent years, the quality has risen with a more closely curated schedule of the city's true best and brightest. No genre is out of bounds for the home-spun festival, and even established foreign films—some Oscar-winners, at that—have found a place in the hallow program of the festival.

The Tribeca Film Festival takes place in various locations throughout Lower Manhattan, although a great deal of screenings occur at the Tribeca Cinema. A full list of Festival venues and a schedule is available at their official website.