The Tribeca Film Festival is the latest major film event to be postponed amid the fears tied to the coronavirus, the festival confirmed in a statement to TheWrap.
Earlier Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a restriction in New York banning events with over 500 or more people attending, including Broadway shows, and Tribeca is adhering to that same restriction.
The 19th edition of the festival was scheduled to take place between April 15-26.
“We founded the Tribeca Film Festival as a way to heal our community after the devastation of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. We were determined to overcome our fear and anxiety by joining together. It is in our DNA to march forward while caring about our community,” Jane Rosenthal, co-founder and CEO of Tribeca Enterprises said in a statement. “We have made the difficult decision to postpone the 19th Tribeca Film Festival (April 15-26) based on the announcement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that events of 500 people or more are banned due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. We are committed to ensuring the health and safety of the public while also supporting our friends, filmmakers and storytellers who look to Tribeca as a platform to showcase their work to audiences. We will be back to you shortly with our plans.”
The Robert De Niro-founded Tribeca Film Festival is the latest casualty of a wave of cancellations on Thursday related to the coronavirus affecting sports, media and Hollywood. Other festivals including CinemaCon, WonderCon and SXSW have all been canceled or postponed.
Tribeca announced its lineup earlier this month with a lineup of 115 films, including 95 world premieres from 33 countries. “Fries!” from producers Chrissy Teigen and Malcolm Gladwell was meant to make its premiere at the festival, as was “Citizen Penn” about Sean Penn’s relief work in Haiti, and “Don’t Try to Understand,” which follows a year in the life of Earl “DMX” Simmons.
Over 200 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the state of New York, according to a count in The New York Times. New York is the second-hardest hit state with coronavirus following Washington state.
Please check www.tribecafilm.com for the latest updates, ticket refund information and details about how the festival is moving forward.