From puppies to Coachella girls, the two-time Academy Award winner dons multitude Snapchat filters with Tribeca Snapchat Shorts finalist Alex Berry.
It isn’t much of an overstatement when someone mentions Robert De Niro as perhaps one of the greatest actors of all time. From his role as Johnny Boy in “Mean Streets” (1973) to his Academy Award-winning turn as Jake LaMotta in “Raging Bull” (1980), De Niro puts in masterful performances time and time again. His oscillation between quiet embraces of humanist qualities and more menacing villainous ones demonstrates the actor’s versatile ability to be anything and everything within the human condition. It is his fierce persistence, passion and empathy which drives his performances to be regarded as some of the best on film.
But beyond his illustriously accomplished acting work, De Niro is also a patron of the arts and a fierce New Yorker. Combining all three, De Niro co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival with Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in 2002 after September 11 as a meaningful way of revitalizing the languishing Tribeca neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. What began as a small film festival has grown to attract over three million individuals and generate over half a billion in revenue at each festival’s turn. Now in its fifteenth year, the Tribeca Film Festival continues to innovate its programming mission, recently launching the Snapchat Shorts competition.
Now in its second year, the competition has expanded to be included as an official section on Snapchat storytelling. The Snapchat Shorts inclusion signals the festival’s continued efforts to be inclusive of all media mediums, large and small. This year’s finalist Alex Berry, acquainted himself to the legendary Robert De Niro in a way that any millennial would–Snapchat. From flower girl to panda face, De Niro explored the app to much hilarity and bewilderment. Check out the humorous video below: