harry smith here had a chance to sit down with its founders, robert de niro and jane rosenthal.ur sitdown with our guests. founders robert de niro and producer jane rosenthal will be taking the 20th installment of the tribeca festival almost exclusively outdoors this year >> there will be nine screens that will be from the bronx to the battery, brooklyn, staten island, and then we have two 40-foot l.e.d. screens that will go around to all of the other communities. it's a traveling festival. >> beginning with "in the heights. >> what a movie to start with. >> it's going to be so much fun. >> a new york movie. >> a new york movie. it's joyous. >> a long-awaited film adaptation of lin-manuel miranda's broadway musical set in upper manhattan will premiere tonight. >> we'll be at the united palace theater and then simultaneously screen it to all of our venues so you can come here to this new park, formerly the tow pound, and watch a movie. >> you call it tow pound and for non-new yorkers this is where you used to get your car towed. >> that's a special prize, you get your car towed a

tribeca was first started as a direct resulof 9/11, and that was the thinking of our founders, jane rosenthal, at that time to give art the opportunity to heal an audience. so, i think this is a unique position that we find ourselves in on our 20th anniversary to do the same thing. >> reporter: last year the in- person film festival was canceled due to the pandemic, yet organizers continued planning for 2021, reviewing a record number of 11,220 film submissions. >> even though people had these incredible limitations and hardships this year, more work was made and submitted than ever before, and that's just something that's incredibly exciting to see and really inspires me for the future of film. >> reporter: planning during a pandemic led to several innovations in the festival's programming, which organizers hope to carry into future festivals. for people who have been to the tribeca film festival befo, how will this year look different? >> well, we are bringing almost everythi outdoors, so that's a huge difference. and they're separated into pods. so, you're in a two person or a four person

it's been 20 years since and you jane rosenthal thought of this did you ever imagine it would be thisthe one you said that sticks in your mind is having nelson mandela and him speaking about movies it's him talking about the healing properties of movies >> yes >> jimmy: yeah i was going to ask you is there a film with -- is there - >> go, go on [ laughter ] sorry. i'm telling somebody to leave the room because they're distracting me sorry. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> jimmy: get out of the room! get out! we're doing "the tonight show" for goodness sake. but, it's the first time you've had a full audience in your living room. it's amazing [ cheers and applause >> yeah, it's a more intimate situation, actually. one on one, for me, where i am in my living room. so having somebody there it just feels better this way >> jimmy: i think this is special for me because i think this probably will be the last time we'll ever facetime with each other because next time it will be in person. >> yes, yes. >> jimmy: so this is good. we're making a little history today. >> yeah. >> jimmy: yeah [ light