Tribeca Film Festival Will Bring Free Screenings To Pier 57

MEATPACKING DISTRICT, NY — Tribeca Film Festival will bring free screenings to the rooftop of Pier 57 during its annual spring festival, a rep for the festival confirmed.

Tribeca Enterprises inked a 15-year deal to curate free programming on Pier 57's roof during the annual film festival.

"Tribeca is pleased to partner with Pier 57 to further the Tribeca Film Festival's mission with a new, longterm footprint on the Pier's rooftop," chief operating officer at Tribeca Enterprises, Pete Torres, said in a statement. "The partnership will allow Tribeca to continue its commitment to New York City with public, free outdoor events to showcase premier storytelling for the community."

Tribeca Film will bring screenings, talks, music performances and more, all for free as a resource for the surrounding community, the festival says. The free screenings build on previous free programs such as a drive-in movie experience at the Oculus in Lower Manhattan.

The film festival will start holding events at Pier 57's 80,000-square-foot rooftop park next year, adding to about half a dozen venues across Manhattan during the 12-day spring festival.

The deal, first reported by Forbes, comes years after the Film Festival sued pier's co-developer Youngwoo & Associates in 2013 for allegedly backing out of the rooftop plans.

But this week, the festival signed the rooftop agreement with the developer RXR Realty, which is redeveloping the pier in collaboration with Youngwoo & Associates.

"Pier 57 has always been envisioned as a public amenity, and our goal in bringing the pier to life has been to make it an only-in-New York attraction that would bring people from the neighborhood, the city, the region and beyond to the west side of Manhattan," said Seth Pinsky, an executive vice-president at RXR.

"Tribeca Film Festival as a true New York institution is entirely consistent with this vision and will be another reason for people from all over the world to come to Pier 57 to enjoy the many public areas that it has to offer," he added.

The roof will be a public open space during much of the rest of the year when the festival is not in session. Tribeca Film joins Google and City Winery, which slated to lease space at the pier, first built in 1952 in the Meatpacking District.

This article has been updated with comment from RXR Realty.