Tribeca’s stand-alone television festival will run from September 22-24 in New York City.

Tribeca TV Festival

Tribeca Enterprises, the parent company of the Tribeca Film Festival, has announced that it is launching a standalone festival for TV in autumn.

Tribeca is expanding its existing April TV programme into the Tribeca TV Festival for episodic storytelling. 

The three-day festival will present curated shows and conversations representative of the cultural zeitgeist, featuring both cast and crew. 

Television programming has been a part of the Tribeca Film Festival since it screened the series finale of Friends in 2004 at the Tribeca Drive-In. 

In 2016, Tribeca launched an official section of the festival dedicated to TV programming, which has featured world premieres of new series and seasons of anticipated shows and special events, including the world premieres of Emmy-nominated programmes The Night Of and, this year, The Handmaid’s Tale

Much like the April TV programme, the new festival will highlight premieres, and also draw attention to under-the-radar work.

Programming highlights include a conversation with Will & Grace stars Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes, Megan Mullally and show creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan ahead of the highly anticipated reboot this autumn.

Steven Soderbergh’s Red Oaks will have the world premiere of its Season Three premiere, while Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey’s Queen Sugar will screen its Season Two midseason premiere.

“Seeing so many Tribeca alumni, like Ava Duvernay, Steven Soderbergh, and David Gordon Greene moving into the TV space was really inspiring to us. We want to follow the creators and be able to reflect what it is that interests them and what they’re doing,” Cara Cusumano, director of programming, said.

The TV festival will also give a sneak peek of an upcoming episode of the FX show Better Things, followed by a conversation with Pamela Adlon speaking with show co-creator Louis CK. 

Other highlights include the series premiere of ABC’s Ten Days In The Valley, followed by a conversation with star and executive producer Kyra Sedgwick, and the world premiere of VR series Look But With Love from Tribeca alum Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy.

‎”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,” Robert De Niro, co-founder of Tribeca, said. “As the Tribeca Film Festival has done, the Tribeca TV Festival will act as a curator in bringing people together for this emerging experience.” 

Jane Rosenthal, co-founder and executive chair of Tribeca, said: “Tribeca has proven itself to be the ideal home for showcasing excellence in storytelling, no matter the medium. The expansion into television is a natural progression in this evolving entertainment landscape.”

For more information on the full line-up of shows and post-screening discussions, click here.