Tribeca Chief Jane Rosenthal Talks Post-Pandemic Festival: ‘It’s Like the Roaring Twenties’

Zazie Beetz, Dominque Fishback, Dianna Agron and more stars braved the New York City rain Monday evening to attend the 16th annual Tribeca Artists Dinner.

Hosted by Chanel at SoHo restaurant Balthazar, the event was thrown in tribute to the 10 women visual artists who contributed their work to projects featured in the 2023 Tribeca Festival, organized by festival chiefs Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. This group of honorees included Ana Benaroya, Beverly Fishman, Christie Neptume, Lisa Lebofsky, Natia Lemay, Patricia Encarnacion, Renee Cox, Sheree Hovsepian, Shinique Smith and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz.

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“When you’re 22, you’ve gotten out of those teenage years. And this year is quite spectacular. So many of our programs have matured,” Rosenthal told Variety of this year’s Tribeca Festival while on the red carpet, shielded from the downpour. “The other thing is that, the past two years whether we were just coming out of the pandemic and did a hybrid festival, and then last year there were still COVID restrictions. This feels like it’s the Roaring Twenties. People are back and ready to party — partying in the streets and coming to screenings and it’s just been fantastic.”

As for hosting the event amid the ongoing writers strike, as well as contract negotiations between the studios and guilds, Rosenthal said there “really isn’t that much different” in how Tribeca has handled things.

“We support the WGA strike, and obviously SAG, all the guilds,” Rosenthal said. “We consulted with the WGA about a number of programs that we had and shifted two of our programs to not do a call for writer submissions at this time. Other than that, the festival has been going on as normal.”

Before cocktails and a meal of steak frites, halibut and profiteroles, Beetz filled Variety in on what it’s like working with Lady Gaga for the “Joker” sequel, while Fishback marveled at the box office performance of her new movie “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.”

“I’m still in a bubble. I’m still in a cloud because I got to go to the Tonys yesterday and present for the first time,” Fishback said. “So I’m happy to be back in New York. The movie takes place in New York. So to get all the love, to see my family and friends and celebrate this accomplishment has been really nice.”

Agron (a Tribeca jury member) teased her upcoming Netflix series “El Elegido” (“The Chosen One”), based on Mark Millar’s graphic novel “American Jesus”: “There’s a specific moment in the first five minutes that is exactly as written in the comic, and I think that will be lovely for people who have really followed the story closely.”

Among other note-worthies in attendance (many of whom were decked out in their Chanel best) were Paula Weinstein, Sofia Coppola and Thomas Croquet, Alden Ehrenreich, Amandla Stenberg, Ayo Edebiri, Brendan Fraser, Camila Morrone, Darren Aronofsky, Francesca Scorsese, Jessica and Jerry Seinfeld, Greta Lee, Iman, Katie Holmes, Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater, Nicole Beharie, Nina Dobrev, Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind, Rachel Brosnahan, Stephanie Hsu, Suki Waeterhouse, Tracee Ellis Ross, Zoey Deutch, Andy Cohen, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Ari Aster and Aurora James.

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