The complete schedule for the Tribeca Film Festival, being held from April 22 through may 3, has been announced. The opening night attraction is Woody Allen's Whatever Works, which marks Allen's return to the city that figures so prominently in approximately 98.9% of his oeuvre, after a four-film tour of Europe. ""A lovely idea of showing my film in a film festival in my own city," gushed Allen. "It's very exciting." For longtime Allen watchers, much of the excitement comes from the news that, after seeing him try to palm younger actors ranging from John Cusack to Kenneth Branagh in what amounted to the Woody Allen role in some of his earlier pictures, he's using Larry David as the lead in this one. (Granted, it's set in a universe where David is married to Evan Rachel Wood.) Other notable features on the schedule include The Girlfriend Experience, Steven Soderbergh's new film starring the adult-film actress Sasha Grey; Serious Moonlight, directed by Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Cheryl Hines from a screenplay written by the late Adrienne Shelly; The Englishman in New York, in which John Hurt plays the aged Quentin Crisp, a role he played more than thirty years ago in The Naked Civil Servant; films that have already stirred up some buzz at this year's Sundance Film Festival, including Duncan Jones's sci-fi movie Moon, the political satire In the Loop, and the neo-blaxploitation thriller Black Dynamite; and Love of the Beast, Eric Bana's documentary about his car.

Tribeca made headlines last month when it was reported that Geoff Gilmore had agreed to come aboard as Chief Creative Officer of Tribeca Enterprises, the company that runs the festival, after nineteen years at the head of the Sundance Film Festival. Gilmore is generally credited with having helped to shape Sundance's distinctive identity over the years, so there's been plenty of speculation about what kind of impact his hiring may have on the future shape of Tribeca, which after seven years is still seen as a festival that is in search of a clear identity. This year's Festival includes 85 features and 46 short films, down from last year's lineup of 120 features. Last year's relatively concentrated lineup marked a deliberate effort to wrangle the festival into a manageable shape after the crosstown sprawl of earlier years. This year's further reduced slate reflects that plus the effects of the shattered economy. Tickets become available to the general public starting Monday, March 16.