Twelve Days, Twelve Venues, One Basement
The Tribeca Film Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2002 as a downtown response to the September 11 attacks — a deliberate effort to bring foot traffic and film culture back to lower Manhattan. The 2026 edition runs June 3 through June 14: twelve days, twelve hundred industry attendees, more than a hundred features and shorts, and roughly fifteen working venues from BMCC at Chambers Street to the SVA Theatre on West 23rd.
Most of the festival programming runs at the large theaters — BMCC, AMC 19th Street, the SVA Theatre, the Beacon for Tribeca Talks. The press lines are at those venues. The red carpets are at those venues. The cinema at the Roxy Hotel — two Sixth Avenue blocks south of Canal — is not where the red carpet is. It is where the 35mm restoration premieres are, where the after-midnight director conversations happen, and where the festival programs its smallest, weirdest, best-curated sidebars.
What the Room Actually Is
The Roxy Cinema opened in October 2016 inside the basement of the Roxy Hotel at 2 Sixth Avenue — the boutique hotel originally opened in 2007 as the TriBeCa Grand. It has one hundred plush velvet seats, two aisles, a single curved silver screen, and a 35mm projector behind the rear wall. The booth still runs film prints. Most contemporary independent cinemas in New York have stopped projecting from celluloid; the Roxy did not. It is the only basement movie house in lower Manhattan that screens 35mm on a daily basis.
Programming is independent of the festival the other fifty weeks of the year — restored prints, repertory series, occasional new releases. During Tribeca, the Roxy gives over its programming to festival picks: usually four screenings a day for the festival's full run, capacity 100, all 35mm or 4K DCP, frequently with a director or cinematographer in the room. Screenings often start at 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m. and run into the next morning.
Why the Roxy Slate Is the Slate to Watch
The festival's larger venues attract press, premieres, and the headline drops. The Roxy gets the curated sidebar. Past festivals' Roxy programming has included Tribeca Restored (preserved 35mm prints of mid-century cult films), Tribeca After Dark (the festival's horror and thriller sidebar), and Tribeca Vintage — a screen-it-once series of repertory programming chosen by the festival's curators rather than its acquisitions team.
Because the room is small, the post-screening conversations are different. There is no microphone, no moderator from a brand sponsorship desk, no two-camera setup. The director or DP sits on a stool in front of the silver screen and the room asks questions. The festival pass holders who knew about the Roxy in 2017 still come back every year. The press does not always notice.
How to Get a Seat
Tribeca passes (festival, industry, day, single-screening) all clear at the Roxy. Single tickets for individual Roxy screenings go on sale through the festival's main ticketing portal — typically two waves, one for pass holders three weeks before the festival, one for general public ten days before. Roxy screenings sell out late: the BMCC and SVA tickets evaporate first, then the Beacon, then the Roxy fills over the final 48 hours.
The cleanest move if you do not have a pass: pick a Tuesday or Wednesday late screening (10:30 p.m. or later) from the second week of the festival (June 9 onward). Festival pass holders are spent by week two; the general-admission line at the Roxy on a Wednesday at 10 p.m. usually has seats available. Walk-ups are accepted with cash or card at the door if the room is not full at showtime.
What to Do on Either Side of the Screening
Pre-show: the lobby bar of the Roxy Hotel one floor up does a serviceable Negroni and a Tribeca-priced cheeseburger. Most pre-screening drinks happen here because the Roxy doesn't run a separate bar inside the cinema. The bar has a small jazz program some weekends but during the festival it tends toward subdued background music; the room is for talking.
After the screening, if it lets out before 1 a.m., the move is across the street to Smith & Mills at 71 North Moore — a tiny converted carriage house that has been doing cocktails since 2007 and stays open until 2 a.m. If it lets out after 1, the only walking option that is still open is the all-night Korean spot at the corner of West Broadway and Walker. Cab home is two minutes.
What's Worth Walking In For
The screenings at the Roxy that are still available the night-of are usually the festival's most interesting picks — film-school first features, restored archival prints, second screenings of festival juried titles whose first run was at BMCC. Tribeca jury awards screen at the larger venues; the second screenings rotate to the Roxy. By the festival's last weekend, the Roxy is functionally a victory lap for the small films that won.
If you have one Tribeca Film Festival night to spend, the Roxy on a Wednesday or Thursday in week two is the night. The room will not be papered with industry. The print, more often than not, will be 35mm. The director will be on the stool. You will pay a Tribeca single-ticket fee and walk back out onto Sixth Avenue at midnight knowing what a downtown film festival room is supposed to feel like.
Practical notes
- Address: Roxy Cinema, 2 Sixth Avenue (entrance via the Roxy Hotel lobby), TriBeCa, NY 10013.
- Festival 2026: Wednesday June 3 through Sunday June 14. Roxy programming runs all twelve days, roughly four screenings per day.
- Getting there: 1 to Canal Street, walk two blocks south on Sixth Avenue. Or A/C/E to Canal Street, four-minute walk west.
- Tickets: tribecafilm.com for festival passes and individual screenings. Roxy screenings sell out 48 hours before showtime; walk-ups possible if room is not full.
- Best night for a walk-up: a weekday after 10 p.m. in the second week of the festival (June 9 onward).
- Pre-show: lobby bar one floor up — Negroni, cheeseburger, talking room.
- After-show before 1 a.m.: Smith & Mills, 71 North Moore Street, three-minute walk.
The point
Most film festivals end up advertising the rooms where their big premieres land — the room that has the largest screen, the longest red carpet, the biggest after-party. Tribeca is a downtown festival. Its actual character is in the small rooms that programmers and pass holders return to every year because the films are better and the conversation afterward is real. The Roxy is that room. From June 3 to June 14, 2026, you can find it in a basement on Sixth Avenue, and the door is open to anyone with a ticket.
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Sources consulted: tribecafilm.com · roxyhotelnyc.com · en.wikipedia.org · nytimes.com · indiewire.com
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