Anais Gutierrez
The Tribeca Film Festival organization announced on Wednesday that it’s launching its own TV Festival. Starting at the end of September and bringing series premieres, panels, and more.
TV has drawn more and more attention in recent months, with festivals and awards making room for TV shows and household names featuring in more and more shows.
The Tribeca TV Festival is happening
The much beloved Tribeca Film Festival decided to give TV its own room and launch an upcoming TV Festival. Tribeca will host a three-day event beginning September 22 through 24, focusing on the most exclusive content for the small screen.
The discussion about a TV festival has been going for years now, considering the trend of the past few years in which the line between entertainment platform has been blurred.
However, concrete plans came together in the past several months.
“Everything is platform-agnostic now, with writers, directors, actors, and consumers going back and forth,” said Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal.
“And we’ve always been about good stories, no matter what platform they’re told on. So a TV festival is a perfect fit,” she added.
The event will kick off with only about a dozen events per day taking place at a single venue, the Cinepolis Chelsea. Organizers expect to attract a wide range of people to the festival and develop plans for growth and profitability at future installations.
TV programming is not a stranger to the New York event which in 2004 aired the series finale of Friends. However, it wasn’t until last year that the festival launched an official section of the festival dedicated to TV, in which it premiered anticipated series such as ‘The Night Of’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.‘
So, the news expands the inclusion of TV from the Tribeca Film Festival.
Robert De Niro, who along with producing partner Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002, issued a statement about the new event.
”Ten years ago we wouldn’t have needed a TV festival. Now, with the change in the TV landscape, both the quality and quantity of shows, it makes sense,” he said.
There are endless stories in TV's golden age. And ALL stories are better shared. Introducing the #TribecaTVFestival: https://t.co/QcxuEkidor pic.twitter.com/x696FInTMa
— Tribeca (@Tribeca) August 16, 2017
What can we expect to see in this new festival?
The new festival line up includes series premieres, special conversations and sneak peek.
Among Tribeca’s series premieres will be Kyra Sedgwick’s limited-series mystery ‘Ten Days in the Valley’ from ABC; ‘Liar,’ a psychological thriller from SundanceTV; and ‘At Home With Amy Sedaris,’ a look at the popular comedian’s domestic life from TruTV.
There’s also returning shows’ season premieres scheduled to be featured include ABC’s ‘Designated Survivor,’ FX’s ‘Better Things,’ Amazon’s ‘Red Oaks’ and OWN’s ‘Queen Sugar,’ which will have its midseason premiere.
A virtual-reality series, “Look But With Love” from VR mainstay’s Within, will also be shown. Nearly all events will be paired with a post-screening talk.
As for panels and conversations, there’s a special conversation with ‘Will & Grace‘ stars Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes, Megan Mullally and show creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan before the reboot this fall.
A sneak peek of ‘Better Things’, followed by a conversation with star Pamela Adlon and co-creator Louis C.K..
Other series conversations include co-creator Amy Sedaris and Andy Cohen discussing ‘At Home with Amy Sedaris’ and a conversation with ‘Ten Days in the Valley’ star Kyra Sedgwick.
There are also panels for ‘Red Oaks’, ‘Gotham’, ‘Queen Sugar’, ‘Designated Survivor’, and more.
TV programming leading the conversation
The news of the new festival comes on the heels of other film fests making their way into TV content.
On Tuesday, Toronto announced its TV programming lineup, which included the first two episodes of HBO’s anticipated porn drama “The Deuce.” And, MTV shifted their annual movie awards to include the small screen back in May.
These moves come as no surprise, considering that TV’s becoming more and more competitive. TV production. In recent years, TV production, talent, and narrative have been stealing moviegoers non-stopping, with more and more household names, including actors, creators, and directors. improvement
Which is why festivals are trying to contend with the explosion in TV programming.
“Since we started programming TV at the film festival, the amount of available television has surpassed what any individual can physically watch,” said Cara Cusumano, Tribeca’s director of programming.
“There is a need for curation, for someone to make sense of it.”
Which is why a TV festival comes in handy, but it still has to face obstacles, and of course, build its own personality.
While a film festival showcases content that the public won’t be able to see for a long time, if ever. Many of the TV series will be available just weeks after they’re screened at Tribeca.
In addition, most festivals can only show several teasing episodes, unlike a film-centric slate, which can offer complete experiences.
Source: LA Times
