Robert De Niro and famed film producer Jane Rosenthal are seated in his spacious Tribeca office in Manhattan, surrounded by posters from projects they’ve worked on together over the last four decades, including A Bronx Tale and The Good Shepherd. The two-time Academy Award winner also has framed photos with family and friends on display (in some of them, he’s even smiling).
His office is about a mile from where David Bowie, a then-recent transplant to the city, played a surprise concert to help ring in the inaugural Tribeca Festival in May 2002. Conceived in part by co-founders De Niro and Rosenthal as a way of rejuvenating the economically and emotionally shaken lower Manhattan area after 9/11, Tribeca Festival has become an integral part of the neighborhood’s fabric, not to mention a significant part of the global film festival calendar.
The 25th Tribeca Festival will take place June 3-14, opening with a Questlove-directed Earth, Wind & Fire documentary and followed by a performance with The Roots. Ahead of the fest, De Niro and Rosenthal discuss Tribeca’s musical triumphs, close calls and the artists on this year’s lineup.
For that first Tribeca Festival that Bowie helped kick off, why was it important to have a concert?
Jane Rosenthal: It was just about bringing people downtown, giving our neighbors new memories. You looked out the window and [ground zero] was still smoking. We still had to deal a lot with counterterrorism and police. A lot of logistics. People were lining up to come: Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Sheryl Crow, Wyclef Jean. Lou Reed was upset that we didn’t ask him.
Wow. Did he call you to complain?
Rosenthal: No, but he was friends with one of my friends, and he came to the festival. He was like, “Why didn’t you ask me to play?”
Robert De Niro: You always leave somebody out. (Shrugs.)
After a screening of his Cameron Crowe-directed documentary The Union, Elton John played the opening night of the 2011 Tribeca Festival, right next to where the Twin Towers used to stand. What are your memories of that?
Rosenthal: It was our 10th anniversary. Elton agreed to do a free concert for the 9/11 community: firefighters, police. We agreed to screen the film outside and two things went wrong that year. One, I seem to have announced to the press that we were doing a concert at Battery Park and didn’t tell Battery Park about it. We solved that. The other problem was that it started to rain the day of the concert. Elton had this Russian piano tuner. I get this call: “The piano tuner says the humidity isn’t right and we have to move this indoors.” I’m like, “We can’t move this indoors.” I come running down and start talking to this piano tuner. Finally, I say to him, “Are you hungry? Have you ever been to Nobu?” I don’t know what I ordered but I was just feeding this guy and suddenly it was OK to play outside.
In 2021, you had Paul McCartney in conversation with Conan O’Brien. Did either of you know Paul before the festival?
De Niro: Yeah, I know him.
Do you ever use your history with people to ask about participating?
De Niro: Sometimes. But sometimes I don’t want to be in the position to ask somebody because they might feel obligated and they can’t, so I’d rather Jane or somebody else ask so they don’t have that pressure. But other times I have.
One off-topic question: Ariana Grande is starring in Focker-In-Law. How did she fit into the Focker clan?
De Niro: She sings my character a lot of songs. (Laughs.) No, she was great. Everybody was very happy she was going to do it.
In 2022, Taylor Swift screened her short film for “All Too Well,” performed and took questions at Tribeca. Was that a logistical challenge?
Rosenthal: She lives in the neighborhood so that was easy. 2017 was [a challenge]. We opened with a Clive Davis film at Radio City [Music Hall] and had Aretha [Franklin], which was one of her last performances. It was just like all the stories about Aretha and her fur coat and her bag. We literally had to pay her in cash. We have pictures of her at the afterparty with her little scarf on, her fur coat and bag.
How much cash could she fit in a little handbag?
Rosenthal: It wasn’t so little.
Bruce Springsteen is receiving the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award this year. Is that influenced by his outspokenness over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge in Minneapolis?
Rosenthal: It felt obvious with everything that’s going on in this country that Bruce has been speaking out about, even before Minneapolis. Speaking out right now comes with consequences. It’s brave for people to speak out, but we have to. Bob has been an outspoken critic.
De Niro: How can you not be? If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. I hate to be that black and white about it, but everybody has to do something now. This is not what I want to be doing at my age and my stage in life, but you have to oppose this insanity.
What else are you excited about this year, musically?
Rosenthal: The Noga doc [about Noga Erez and Ori Rousso] is really good, and she’s going to perform afterward. With everything going on, Israel-Palestine, to see the story through a performer’s eyes, and somebody who is so talented and what she went through, it’s just a good way of looking at politics but through the eyes of the artist.
A version of this story appears in the May 9, 2026, issue of Billboard.
