Tribeca Film Festival to Feature ‘Fargo,’ ‘Royal Tenenbaums’ Cast Reunions

The casts of “Fargo,” “Raging Bull,” “The Five Heartbeats,” and “The Royal Tenenbaums” will reunite at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

In addition, the festival, which is returning to in-person events after COVID scrambled plans for the 2020 edition, will host talks with the likes of Bradley Cooper, Amy Schumer, Gina Prince-Bythewood, M. Night Shyamalan, and members of the punk group Blondie.

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The festival will take place largely in outdoor venues around each of the city’s five boroughs. It unfolds between June 9 to June 20, and comes nearly 20 years after the festival was founded in the wake of 9/11.

Just as that festival was formed to inspire people to return to lower Manhattan, which had been devastated by the terrorist attack, this iteration comes as New York City is struggling to reemerge from a pandemic that upended cultural and economic life.

Past Tribeca reunions have featured the filmmaking teams behind such classics as “Goodfellas,” “Schindler’s List” and “The Godfather.” This time, the lineup is equally stacked.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of “Fargo,” director Joel Coen will join stars Frances McDormand and Steve Buscemi to discuss the making of the the darkly comic crime thriller.

The 20th anniversary of “The Royal Tenenbaums” will feature a live-streamed conversation with director Wes Anderson and cast members Alec Baldwin, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, and Danny Glover (though not Gene Hackman, who is retired and who it doesn’t sound like enjoyed the experience of making the film anyway).

For the 30th anniversary of “The Five Heartbeats,” Robert Townsend, John Terrell, Tico Wells, Leon Robinson, James Hawthorne, Harry Lennix, and Michael Wright will gather together to discuss the film’s legacy.

And in honor of a newly restored version of “Raging Bull,” Robert De Niro, the co-founder of Tribeca, will have a pre-taped conversation with director Martin Scorsese.

The festival will also present a restored version of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid.” Owing to the fact that this year marks the classic’s 100th anniversary, there won’t be a cast reunion.

“Each year the Tribeca Festival gathers the most esteemed names in film and entertainment for conversations that shine a light on the creative process,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Founder and CEO of Tribeca Enterprises and the Tribeca Festival. “This year we are particularly proud that we can once again convene these talented names for in-person conversations as we discuss new ways our world and business is being reshaped and reimagined.”

Here’s the official lineup:

TRIBECA TALKS: DIRECTORS SERIES
This conversation series showcases the careers of influential filmmakers.
M. Night Shyamalan
Doug Liman in conversation with Jason Hirschorn
Gina Prince-Bythewood in conversation with Sanaa Lathan

TRIBECA TALKS: STORYTELLERS
Sponsored by Montefiore-Einstein
This series celebrates the illustrious careers of today’s most innovative creators, who have broken from traditional roles and pioneered their own forms of storytelling.
Bradley Cooper and Guillermo del Toro
Amy Schumer and Emily Ratajkowski
Scott Z. Burns and Matthew Rhys
Shira Haas and Ali Wentworth
Get Lifted’s John Legend and Mike Jackson
Blondie’s Debbie Harry, Clem Burke and Chris Stein

TRIBECA TALKS
Scott Rechler – “Recalibrate Reality: The Future of NY”
Jason Hirschhorn – “The Business of Entertainment” and “The Future of Podcasting”

REUNIONS & RESTORATIONS
The Royal Tenenbaums – 20th Anniversary
Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Etheline (Anjelica Huston), had three children — Chas, Margot, and Richie — and then they separated. Chas (Ben Stiller) started buying real estate in his early teens and seemed to have an almost preternatural understanding of international finance. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a playwright and received a Braverman Grant of $50,000 in the ninth grade. Richie (Luke Wilson) was a junior champion tennis player and won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. The Royal Tenenbaums is a hilarious, touching, and brilliantly stylized study of melancholy and redemption.
After the Screening: A live-streamed conversation with Wes Anderson, Alec Baldwin, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, and Danny Glover.

Fargo – 25th Anniversary
Things go terribly awry when small-time Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) hires two thugs (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife so he can collect ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. Once people start dying, the very chipper and very pregnant Police Chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) takes the case. Is she up for this challenge? You betcha.
After the Screening: An-in person conversation Joel Coen, Frances McDormand, and Steve Buscemi

The Five Heartbeats – 30th Anniversary
Five friends leave their neighborhood and head for a new type of music – Motown. Coming in on the tail end of a rhythm and blues singing group explosion, The Five Heartbeats (Robert Townsend, Michael Wright, Leon, Harry J. Lennix, Tico Wells), rise and fall within the space of seven years. Along the way, the group deals with all manner of fame and fortune distractions — jealousy, greed, too much womanizing and drugs all take a toll.
After the Screening: An in-person conversation with Robert Townsend, John Terrell, Tico Wells, Leon Robinson, James Hawthorne, Harry Lennix, Michael Wright moderated by Loren Hammonds.

The Kid – 100th Anniversary
Charlie Chaplin was already an international star when he decided to break out of the short-film format and make his first full-length feature. The Kid doesn’t merely show Chaplin at a turning point, when he proved that he was a serious film director—it remains an expressive masterwork of silent cinema. In it, he stars as his lovable Tramp character, this time raising an orphan (a remarkable young Jackie Coogan) he has rescued from the streets. Chaplin and Coogan make a miraculous pair in this nimble marriage of sentiment and slapstick, a film that is, as its opening title card states, “a picture with a smile—and perhaps, a tear.”

Raging Bull – Restoration
Robert De Niro teams up with director Martin Scorsese to create one of cinema’s eternal masterpieces. Nominated for eight Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Director, this contemporary classic is “ambitious, violent, poetic and lyrical” (The New York Times). De Niro turns in a powerful, Best Actor Oscar®-winning performance as Jake La Motta, a boxer whose psychological and sexual complexities erupt into violence both in and out of the ring. Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty co-star.
Director Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro discuss the film’s lasting legacy in a pre-recorded conversation.

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