Tribeca festival begins in New York

De Niro created the festival to help regenerate downtown New York following the 2001 terror attacks

New York's Tribeca Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with the world premiere of a documentary about Saturday Night Live.

Live in New York! explores 40 years of the comedy sketch show and its impact on US culture.

The festival, founded by actor Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, has now been running for 14 years.

It closes on 26 April with a remastered print of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, marking the film's 25th anniversary.

De Niro, who starred in the original 1990 film, will be joined by fellow cast members at the screening.

Other festival highlights include a screening of Harold Lloyd's New York-set silent classic Speedy, with a live soundtrack provided by DJ Z-Trip; Arnold Schwarzenegger in the premiere of zombie drama Maggie - described by the Terminator star as "the most human role you've ever seen me take on"; and Britain's Simon Pegg in the screwball romantic comedy Man Up.

There will also be documentaries on the National Lampoon films (Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon) and the international premiere of Michael Winterbottom's The Emperor's New Clothes, made in conjunction with Russell Brand.

Jane Rosenthal and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels attend the festival's opening night

There will also be talks with filmmakers including George Lucas, Christopher Nolan and Bennett Miller.

On Thursday, Mary J Blige will follow the screening of music documentary The London Sessions with a live performance.

"You're always nervous. It's putting on a show; it's having all these people into your house. We work for a year on it," Rosenthal told the Hollywood Reporter at Vanity Fair's annual Tribeca Film Festival party.

"I think being a little nervous is always good. You can never be too confident about anything."

Rosenthal said she was most looking forward to Monty Python's 40th anniversary celebration, which will see screenings of classic Python films and bring together, once again, the five surviving members of the comedy troupe.

"I'm actually really excited about seeing all the Pythons together, having just loved those movies," said Rosenthal. "So I'm excited to see what they're going to do after their film."

For his part, De Niro told reporters he just had fun..."showing up".