| NEWS 04.29.08 5:02 PM |
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| AmEx Adds Hospitality Lounge With Programming to Tribeca Festival |
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Tina Fey participated in a Q&A at the Insider Center last Friday.
Photo: Marion Curtis/Starpix |
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The Tribeca Film Festival's founding sponsor, American Express, added a new facet to this year's festivities: an entertainment and hospitality lounge dubbed the Insider Center. Taking over the Union Square Ballroom for nine days, the program is a place for filmmakers and card members to gather in the heart of the festival’s northern hub.
“It was originally a celebration of the neighborhood, and now it’s just a renewed commitment to the human spirit of filmmaking and storytelling,” said Jessica Igoe, director of global sponsorship marketing at American Express, of the festival. “We’ve signed on for five more years.” Each year the AmEx teams spends roughly six months preparing for the festival, always with the goal of bringing something new to the table.
Launched last Thursday, the Insider Center is hosting a slew of short film screenings, filmmaker interviews, and round-table discussions on topics ranging from particular films to cinematic themes. The "Insider Talks" discussion series kicked off with an appearance by Tina Fey, who participated in a Q&A before an advance screening of her new film, Baby Mama.
“This is our first year, so we partnered with the festival on all of this,” Igoe said. “All of our ‘Insider Talks’ programming is curated with the help of the Tribeca Film Institute."
Last year, AmEx introduced a series of surprise postscreening parties for select films, where the entire audience could head to a nearby restaurant to speak with the filmmakers. The positive response was one of the reasons Igoe and her team opened the Insider Center this year. “We were able to take that nugget of an idea and really create a space that takes you backstage at the festival,” Igoe added.
The concierge desk at the Insider Center also takes a page from one of American Express’s longest-running contributions to the festival, the Guest Information Centers. The tiny silver kiosks have serviced high-traffic areas of lower Manhattan since the first festival in 2002 by providing schedules, and occasionally free popcorn, to anyone who stops by.
—Michael O'Connell
RELATED TOPICS
Tribeca Film Festival, American Express
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