Tribeca tunes in to television
The New York film fest launches separate event devoted to the small screen.
The New York film festival is adding an event devoted to the small screen too.
NEW YORK — For the last several years, the Tribeca Film Festival has been a springboard for new television series, helping launch “The Night Of” and the recent Hulu phenomenon “The Handmaid’s Tale” at its spring event.
Now, Tribeca has decided to give TV a room of its own.
On Wednesday, the New York gathering announced that it was spinning out a separate small-screen confabulation to be called the Tribeca TV Festival. In what amounts to a first for an established film festival, Tribeca will host a three-day affair beginning Sept. 22 that will focus almost exclusively on content for the small screen.
The news underscores the trend of the last few years in which the line between entertainment platforms has been blurred — and offers the latest, and perhaps most ambitious, test of a film festival’s ability to embrace the medium.
“Everything is platform-agnostic now, with writers, directors, actors and consumers going back and forth,” said Tribeca cofounder Jane Rosenthal, noting that a TV festival had been discussed internally for a number of years, with concrete plans coming together in the last several months. “And we’ve always been about good stories, no matter what platform they’re told on. So a TV festival is a perfect fit.”
The event is modest in scope, at least in Year 1: Only about a dozen events, taking place over three days at a single New York venue, the Cinepolis Chelsea. But organizers believe they can attract a wide range of people to the festival while also stoking interest in Hollywood, where networks are eager for ways to stand out in a competitive marketplace.
Among Tribeca’s 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.
Returning shows’ season premieres scheduled to be featured include ABC’s “Designated Survivor,” FX’s “Better Things” and Amazon’s “Red Oaks,” while OWN’s “Queen Sugar” 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.
The festival will also host a panel with the actors and creators of “Will & Grace,” which is being rebooted beginning Sept. 28 on NBC, though no episodes will be screened.
Notably, no Netflix series are included. But organizers, citing past Tribeca showings of programs like “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” said they imagined that would change at future editions.
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.
The Tribeca TV Festival comes on the heels of other film fests ramping up their TV content. On Tuesday, Toronto announced its TV programming lineup, which included the first two episodes of HBO’s anticipated porn industry drama “The Deuce.” Festivals are trying to contend with the explosion in TV programming within — and now outside — the confines of their regular slates, and see the addition as critical to their relevance.
But for all the ways such content is a natural fit, obstacles remain. 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 show only several teasing episodes, unlike a film-centric slate, which can offer complete experiences.
Executives say there is still benefit to bringing people together for television viewing in a festival setting.
“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.”
“Fans love being in a room together with other fans,” said Paula Weinstein, executive vice president at Tribeca parent company Tribeca Enterprises. “People went mad for Amy Schumer when we had her at the festival [for her TV series]. It’s not the same as watching in your living room or on your phone.”
The goal with the new event is to break even in the first year, with bigger plans for growth and profitability at future installations. The festival is mainly a consumer event — there will be no buying market since all the shows already have homes — but with an eye toward attracting some industry professionals. Programming will not affect the Tribeca Film Festival’s TV lineup, which will continue apace in the spring, organizers said.
Tribeca chose the September slot to give itself and consumers access to soon-to-premiere fall shows.
The Tribeca TV Festival will, however, compete with other Hollywood events on the calendar — the Toronto International Film Festival wraps the previous week, and the New York Film Festival begins the following weekend.
“We always say there is no good week in New York. We won’t compete with the New York Film Festival, but we will compete with the U.N.,” said Rosenthal, noting the General Assembly meeting that week. “But we believe people who come to the festival will get something special — not just great television but a sense of discovery and community.”