Bobby, Jane and the seven-year itch

By Steven Zeitchik

In this, its seventh year, the Tribeca Film Festival is trying again to make this the year of the breakout. It's a noble attempt, one made nobler by the hiring of Gena Terranova, nee of the Weinstein Co., to streamline the slate and filter for quality/commerciality (well, the film-festival version of commerciality, at least). After all, as an exec involved in "Transamerica" a few years back, she's connected to the festival's only bona fide boxoffice hit, and that expertise/karma should rub off).

Along with indie-beat stalwart Gregg Goldstein, we run down some of the more promising titles in this year's line-up -- and with genre pictures like "From Within," dramatic comedies like "Bart Got a Room" (full disclosure: it stars our cousin -- no, not William H. Macy with a fro, the other guy) and thrillers like "The Caller," there is promise to spare.

Of course for all the changes the fest made to both the slate and the way movies are presented and screened, Tribeca still faces some of the issues it faces every year: buyers can be thin on the ground, movies can feel small and money can be scarce ahead of Cannes.

Plus this year there's the added concern with even markets at higher-profile fests have been rocky. John Sloss says it all when he notes that "The specialty market is in flux." When a bigtime seller like Sloss is saying that, you know there are obstacles.