There is a notable variation in how New York City builds up to its two major film festivals — perhaps a consequence of how long each has been a fixture on the landscape.

It seems every fall, in the weeks leading up to the New York Film Festival, which will celebrate its 45th anniversary this year, the event is splashed all over the city’s collective radar. For weeks ahead of the first screening, there’s talk of what will show as the opening night selection, and what titles have made the cut.

But the Tribeca Film Festival — by some accounts a bigger deal than its older counterpart — seems to catch the typical New York moviegoer off-guard. As it kicks off tonight with a star-studded premiere of seven environmental short films, dubbed the “SOS Short Films,” word will start spreading that the downtown film festival, now in its sixth year, is back and set to kick into high gear first thing Thursday.

And then it will be a game of catch-up, of surveying what titles are already sold out and what screenings will fit into a packed weekend schedule. In the interest of helping you plan your way through the festival’s first weekend, here are five picks for the festival’s first five days:

THURSDAY

“PLANET B-BOY” 5 p.m.

Looking to get your festival fix early? Try starting off with one of the festival’s most exciting — and maybe even its best — documentary, “Planet B-Boy.”

A film first discussed at the at the Tribeca All-Access program (which helps filmmakers from underrepresented communities get a chance to pitch their projects to industry insiders) in 2004, “B-Boy” traverses the world as director Benson Lee unearths the hidden world of obsessed break-dancers and follows the stories of a handful of teams as they arrive at an annual international showdown.

If you suddenly find yourself a break-dance fan, check out Webster Hall on Friday night, where Mr. Lee will welcome some of the film’s break-dancing teams on to the stage to battle some of NYC’s top crews.

“DIRTY DANCING” 8 p.m.

There’s a slim chance of showers tomorrow night, but if the gods love Tribeca as much as they should, Thursday will offer clear skies for the first of the three Tribeca Drive-In events. And what better night to go down to the World Financial Center, on the banks of the Hudson, for a film than with the festival’s biggest nostalgia trip, “Dirty Dancing,” brought back to the big screen in celebration of the film’s 20th anniversary.

Oh, and it’s free.

FRIDAY

“PASSIO” 8 p.m.

In what might be the most magical movie event of the weekend, Paolo Cherchi Usai’s “Passio” will be covering Manhattan this weekend, showing at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on Friday and Saturday evenings, and downtown at Trinity Church on Sunday afternoon.

Fusing a live accompaniment of Arvo Part’s brilliant 1982 composition, “Passio,” with Mr. Usai’s 74-minute silent montage of images culled from a century’s worth of recording moving images, the movie is — along with next weekend’s “Rebirth of a Nation” — the festival’s most creative and cerebral event.

SATURDAY

“2 DAYS IN PARIS” 1:30 p.m.

Festival fanatics should be familiar with the actress Julie Delpy, as well as with movies in which she spends a few hours with a romantic interest in Paris.

The star of “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset” has written, directed, edited, produced, and even composed the music for “2 Days In Paris,” a film in which she also stars. And when any creative force brings that much to the table, it’s bound to make the film stand out from the crowd.

About a couple (Ms. Delpy and Adam Goldberg) on a lighthearted visit to France and the unexpected events that pit them against a foreign city, language, and even each other, “2 Days” could be a mainstream hit before long.

SUNDAY

“AUTUMN DAYS” 8 p.m.

Screening as part of the festival’s “Restored/Rediscovered” program, Roberto Gavaldón’s “Autumn Days” is a 1962 work raised from the depths of Mexico’s Film Archive, starring Pina Pellicer, who many will know for her role opposite Marlon Brando in 1961’s “One-Eyed Jacks.”

“Autumn Days” tells the story of a naive girl who, amid a hard job in the big city and a disastrous love affair, concocts an alternate reality. but the real star of film is the lush, evocative cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa, who earned an Oscar nod for his work on John Huston’s 1964 film “The Night of the Iguana.”

Here’s the weekend’s pick for the film buff — the movie you can bribe your mainstream friends into attending in exchange for taking them to “Dirty Dancing.”