Well, according to indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez, it's full speed ahead with the new distribution initiatives. TFF has the power to make Houston Street our La Croisette, complete with palm trees. One can envision a Tribeca à la Rotterdam that brings together events and screenings at Film Forum, Anthology Film Archives, the IFC Center, the Angelika, the Sunshine, and Martin Scorsese's boyhood block in one yawping cine-celebration of spring. "Rather than Toronto (or a pay-per-view Sundance Channel), Tribeca might better study Rotterdam - a scrappy, cinephilic urban festival that has thrived for years in the shadow of Berlin, thanks to its freewheeling commitment to (and subsidies of) independent, experimental, and Third World cinema, not to mention a long-standing interest in innovative delivery systems, outré film culture, and a funky late-night celebratory atmosphere. Having recently completed a term on the NYFF selection committee, I know that the Film Society lives in fear of Tribeca's star power and populist appeal." Even so: This year's edition, opening tonight with Shrek Forever After and running through May 2, has got the Voice's J Hoberman backing way up before he pinpoints his hopes for Tribeca, now in its ninth year: " Cannes is in a class by itself" Venice and Berlin "survive largely on Cannes' oversights and missed opportunities the only other festival remotely capable of generating comparable hysteria is Sundance (still our Cannes despite being out-hipstered by Austin's SXSW)." And then there's "the locafest gone galactic in Toronto." It's "the ultimate people's festival. Few events raise questions as to what films festivals are, really, what they're for, who they're for and what they could and should be in the future quite like Tribeca.