Tribeca Film Fest Adds Digital & Online Content To Its Market Mix

The 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) today announced the inaugural Tribeca Digital Creators Market and Special Screenings program. A marketplace for digital and online content on April 21 will connect online creators with buyers, producers and agents. The daylong program will include special screenings, open to the public, featuring new work from well-known and fledgling online storytellers from digital studios such as YouTube Red, StyleHaul, Fullscreen, Indigenous Media, New Form Digital and Maker Studios.

“There are exceptional stories being made for digital platforms and passionate, engaged fan bases for these stories,” said festival director Genna Terranova. “Our goal is to create an event that serves both the industry and creators by bringing visibility to their work and assisting their development. With this new platform, we hope to encourage quality storytelling in digital media and beyond, and give the public a first look at what their favorite creators are working on.”

Special Screenings will launch alongside the Tribeca Digital Creators Market with the debut of five premieres, along with conversations with the creators. The program kicks off on April 20th with the world premiere of Vlogumentary directed by Matthew Testa and produced by Shay Carl Butler, Morgan Spurlock, Corey Vidal, Jeremy Chilnick, and Julie “Bob” Lombardi.

The Special Screenings continue April 21st with a sneak peek of new episodes from Legendary and Fullscreen’s update of Sid & Marty Kroft’s Electra Woman & Dyna Girl starring YouTube sensations Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart; Maker Studios and New Form Digital’s comedy series Party Girl created and written by Lacey Marisa Friedman and Lisa Schwartz and starring  Schwartz (lisbug); and StyleHaul’s ensemble dramedy series Relationship Status featuring Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes, Gilmore Girls), Shawn Ashmore, (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Emma Bell (The Walking Dead) and Brant Daugherty (Pretty Little Liars). Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) and Jake Avnet will discuss their new filmmaker mentorship initiative, Indigenous Media’s Film Incubator, powered by The Black List, as well as screen clips from one of the chosen films. The day closes out with the premiere of Sing It! from Fine Brothers Entertainment and Mandeville Films, a scripted comedy series launching exclusively on YouTube Red this Spring.

The Tribeca Digital Creators Market will curate a group of the industry’s most promising creators and pair them with multi-channel networks, ad agencies, traditional media producers, agents and brands looking for content and talent. Market attendees include David Milchard and Matt Clarke (Convos with My 2-Year Old), John Cozart (Paint), Gaby Dunn (Just Between Us), Tim Pool (Timcast), The Gregory Brothers, Matt Bellasai (Whine About It), Allison Raskin (Just Between Us), Gregory Bayne and Christian Lybrook (Zero Point), Ingrid Nilsen, Joe Penna (MysteryGuitarMan), Meghan Tonjes (singer-songwriter, #bootyrevolution), Jordan Fish, Mikey Murphy, Tony Valenzuela (creator of BlackBoxTV), and more.

Through a day of meetings, talks and screenings, the event will facilitate casual networking, collaboration and the opportunity for creators to pitch new projects. The market, whose concept was developed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), will run in parallel to the Special Screening selections.

For the third year in a row, TFF announced the projects that make up Tribeca N.O.W. (New Online Work), an online showcase that recognizes and celebrates the next generation of storytellers who choose to create and share their work online. The program will feature the work of 11 creators chosen for their innovative storytelling and robust creative vision by the TFF programming team. Each storyteller and a selection of their work will be featured in a public screening on April 14th, as well as given an official spot as a Creator at the Tribeca Digital Creators Market.