The official lineup for this year’s Special Events and Tribeca Talks panel series has been announced by the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF). The series includes returning favorites “Tribeca Talks: After the Movie;” “Tribeca Talks: Industry;” “Tribeca Talks: Pen to Paper, Hosted by Barnes & Noble” and the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival panel.

To honor the tenth anniversary of the TFF, the new program “Tribeca Talks: Directors Series” will make its debut. It will feature one-on-one conversations with acclaimed filmmakers, and the premiere of five new documentary movies and a video-game-film event.

Several entertainment icons, such as Alec Baldwin and Martin Scorsese, will moderate discussions between audiences and such directors as Doug Liman and TFF co-founder Robert De Niro during the Directors Series. The discussions will focus on such topics as mult-platform filmmaking, financing and the role of women in movies.

The Tribeca Talks panel series was initiated because TFF officials “wanted to celebrate our Tenth Festival by inviting some of the finest filmmakers, media artists and actors of our time to share their insights and experiences,” Nancy Schaefer, the Executive Director of the TFF, said. “We have over the years established a tradition of conversations that engaged audiences in the details and revelations of contemporary filmmaking,” she added.

The Tribeca Talks panel series is open to the public. The events will take place throughout the TFF, which runs from April 20 to May 1, 2011. More information about the TFF can be found at its official website, tribecafilm.com.

Written by: Karen Benardello