Tribeca Film Festival data leak exposes Hollywood stars, including Angelina Jolie and Robert De Niro
Thousands of Hollywood contacts were exposed – and no one knows for how long.
Angelina Jolie. Laurent KOFFEL/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
- A publicly exposed Tribeca database revealed contact details tied to major Hollywood celebrities.
- The leak could give scammers a roadmap for highly targeted phishing attacks.
- The incident adds to growing concerns over unsecured cloud databases exposing celebrities and public figures.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
The contact information tied to thousands of A-list Hollywood stars was reportedly accessible to the public after a security researcher found several databases belonging to the Tribeca Film Festival leaking the private information – and no one knows how long the records were exposed.
Well-known security researcher Jeremiah Fowler said he recently discovered not just one, but four unsecured databases, exposing a combined 666,369 records.
“Tribecca Film Festival, A-list celebrities exposed in major data breach. I saw names such as Scorsese, Lucas, Ron Howard, De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Neil Patrick Harris, Hilary Duff, Rami Malek and many more,” Fowler revealed on X.
A reported 200,000 records were attached to actors, directors, producers, media members, festival staff, and other industry professionals.
The records were said to be time-stamped with dates ranging from 2019 to 2026, Fowler said in a blog post written for ExpressVPN, first published over the weekend.
What’s wild is that Fowler said the databases were publicly accessible without password protection or encryption before he notified the festival and subsequently secured.
This means it's unclear how long the information was exposed or whether anyone else accessed it before it was taken offline.
What data was accessed?
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in June, the New York City-based Tribeca Film Festival draws anywhere between 130,000 and 150,000 attendees each year.
About 13,000 high-profile individuals and industry contacts are registered for the festival, according to Variety, with big names varying each year depending on what films are being shown or promoted.
Founded by award-winning actor Robert De Niro, film and television producer Jane Rosenthal, and business investor Craig Hatkoff, the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival was held from June 3rd through June 14th.
The exposed information reportedly included names, email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses, and internal festival communications.
Fowler said after uncovering the first database, he found an additional “three separate unsecured databases,” as well as a fourth database that was properly secured.”
The databases and the number of records associated with each included:
- Development: 203,370 records
- Staging: 224,999 records)
- Production: 238,000 records
- Content Management System (CMS)
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Cybernews has reached out to the Tribeca Film Festival for comment and will update this story if a response is received.
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