Stand Up To Cancer

On behalf of myself, Robert DeNiro and Craig Hatkoff, the 2009 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL salutes STAND UP TO CANCER. During this year's eighth annual film festival, which runs April 22 through May 3, we are proud to lend our support to build awareness for such an important groundbreaking initiative to raise funds for critical research to conquer all forms of cancer.

The team that co-founded Stand Up To Cancer includes Sherry Lansing and Laura Ziskin, who are also leaders in the film industry. We applaud Stand Up To Cancer's efforts to mobilize the entertainment community, as well as the nation and the world. And we will ask our filmmakers and the thousands of people who attend the Tribeca Film Festival each year to STAND UP with us.

Our annual celebration of film, music and culture, was founded in 2001, following the attacks on the World Trade Center. Our message was then, and continues to be, one of hope, to enable the general public to experience the power of cinema. We used our most powerful tool to communicate and to help in the cultural revitalization of a community. And in the past eight years, we have been a part of an effort that has reached millions through our films, panel discussions, Drive-In, Family Festival Street Fair and Sports Day. And so, the 2009 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL broadens the message of hope as we lend our voices to STAND UP TO CANCER. I will personally ask our filmmakers and my colleagues, to join us in a call to action, to STAND UP on behalf of those in our community who have been touched by the disease, either with a diagnosis or through a loved one affected by cancer. Together, we can make a difference.

Jane Rosenthal
Co-Founder, Tribeca Film Festival
www.tribecafilm.com/festival