Tribeca Film Festival founders Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal andCraig Hatkoff have teamed up with Tropfest founder John Polson on the newTribeca programme, Tropfest@Tribeca.

The inaugural Tropfest@Tribeca is set to take place during nextyear's Tribeca and will feature eight shorts in competition.

Australia's Polson will serve as creative director and has setsome stringent criteria for aspiring entrants: each submission must incorporatea Tropfest Signature Item to prove it was made specifically for the festival,must be under seven minutes long, and must make its world premiere at theevent.

"I never expected that showing one of my short films forfriends and family 14 years ago at the Tropicana Caffe in Sydney would lead tothe creation of a short film festival that attracts over 150,000 people on asingle night," Polson said.

"The Tribeca Film Festival has become a landmark event forfilmmakers, and I know that bringing Tropfest to Tribeca will providesignificant opportunities to a new generation of short filmmakers around theworld.

Tribeca 2006 is scheduled to run from Apr 25-May 7, while the 14thannual Tropfest takes place in Australia on Feb 26.

For moreinformation please visit www.tropfest.com and www.tribecafilmfestival.org.