The Best Looks from Chanel’s Tribeca Film Festival Artists Dinner

On Monday evening, Tribeca Film Festival founder Robert De Niro gathered a crowd of film, fashion, and art world creatives for TFF’s annual Artists Dinner at Balthazar restaurant in Soho. Hosted by Chanel, the theme outwardly appeared to be the start of spring, with ornate floral arrangements by Bronson Van Wyck covering every inch of the space. However, De Niro’s mission was to toast artists whose work inspires filmmakers like himself, including sculptors Keith Edmier and Virginia Overton, as well as landscape painter Stephen Hannock. To reinforce this, specific art books were placed on the chairs of each A-list guest: Harvey Keitel had a book about LEGOs; Chloe Sevigny was given Donald Sultan‘s floral but dark prints; Dree Hemingway had Alex Katz‘s pop art portraits. And, appropriately enough, De Niro received a book of William Wegman’s portraits of unsmiling Weimaranerdogs. But don’t judge a book by its cover.

Topics of conversation included neither art nor films at the festival, for that matter. Rather, the New York Primary the following day had even this Euro-leaning crowd talking politics. Guests like Audrey Gelman didn’t need to say who they were voting for though (Hillary), and it was clear the subject was nearing exhaustion with Petra Collins — a Canadian — expressing her bewilderment with the whole thing: “Politics here are just so insane, but I’d probably vote for Bernie,” she said. “I try to ignore it since I can’t do anything about it. I can always just go back to Canada if something bad happens.”

Tavi Gevinson chimed in: “Don’t ask a Canadian! They don’t know what’s going on! Their mayor just died; they’re in mourning.” She too was exhausted, but for more reasons than one. “I’m just really tired of Trump and all of it as a whole, but I’m also really tired of hearing about Bernie versus Hillary, specifically,” she said. “I’ve gone off social media because it was so tiring. I only re-download the apps when I want to post what I’m up to. It’s people who basically agree, arguing about the same thing.” The young actress wouldn’t say who she was voting for — she was on “vocal rest” from her role in The Crucible on Broadway.