Tribeca Tones Down Its Festival This Year

New York, NY (CNS) - Criticisms and scathing remarks on last year's Tribeca Film Festival prompted the organizers to take action on what must be done for this year's event.

On its seventh year, the annual film festival, which will open Wednesday night, responded by cutting the number of feature films, bringing down the ticket prices and refocusing screenings geographically to only a certain portion of downtown Manhattan.

The film's founders led by actor Robert De Niro; De Niro's producing partner Jane Rosenthal and Rosenthal's entrepreneur husband, Craig Hatkoff, hope to win the approval of the city as well as the film community.

Last year, the festival's attendees resented the expansion of the Tribeca film fest in other parts of New York as well as increasing the number of movie screenings.

"There were some very valid criticisms and we've listened to our audience," Rosenthal said in newsobserver.com.

The founders said that aside from the usual screenings of mainstream and quirky movies, there will be discussions on genre-defining films like Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," and conversations with featured artists and directors.

The festival will run up until May 4.