BY THE EDITORS |

2016 Tribeca Film Festival Announces its Inaugural Digital Creators Program

Featuring our first-ever marketplace for digital and online content and the third-annual Tribeca N.O.W. (New Online Work) showcase.

2016 Tribeca Film Festival Announces its Inaugural Digital Creators Program
Maria Angelico and Genevieve Callaghan in MOVEMENT. Photo by Sarah Walker.

As everyone knows, many of today's most engaging and inventive storytellers reside on the web. Through the Tribeca Film Festival's online storytellers showcase Tribeca N.O.W. (New Online Work), we have located some of the best shows not on TV, from the Brooklyn-bred drama Money and Violence, whose second season is currently streaming on Tidal, to the sensational stoner comedy High Maintenance, which was recently picked up by HBO for a third season set to air sometime in 2016. Throughout the years, Tribeca has dedicated itself to spotlighting as many ingenious internet storytellers as we can possibly find. And this year, we're upping the ante...

Today, the 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, announced the inaugural Tribeca Digital Creators Market and Special Screenings program. The first ever marketplace for digital and online content will connect online creators with industry, including buyers, producers and agents, and set a new standard for the creation, sale and showcase of digital series and standalone content. After an evening screening of Vlogumentary on Wednesday, April 20th, the daylong program on Thursday April 21st will also feature a lineup of special screenings, open to the public, featuring highly anticipated new work from well-known and burgeoning online storytellers from digital studios such as YouTube Red, StyleHaul, Fullscreen, Indigenous Media, New Form Digital, and Maker Studios. The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival will run from April 13rd to the 24th in New York City.

Vlogumentary

“There are exceptional stories being made for digital platforms and passionate, engaged fan bases for these stories. Our goal is to create an event that serves both the industry and creators by bringing visibility to their work and assisting their development,” said Genna Terranova, Festival Director of the Tribeca Film Festival. “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.”

Relationship Status

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. The program furthers Tribeca's mission to find the newest, most original forms of storytelling to share with the widest possible audience. A selection of each storyteller’s work will be featured in a public screening on Thursday, April 14th. A number of new episodes (:DRYVRS, Shugs & Fats, The Gay and Wonderous Life of Caleb Gallo) and projects (from Akilah Hughes, Jacob T. Swinney, Zenga Bros., and more) will make their world premieres via the N.O.W. page on the TribecaFilm.com on April 15th. They are also given an official spot as a Creator at the Tribeca Digital Creators Market. Details on the Tribeca Digital Creators Special Screenings, Market participants, and the Tribeca N.O.W creators follow.

Shugs & Fats

TRIBECA DIGITAL CREATORS - SPECIAL SCREENING SELECTIONS

Electra Woman & Dyna Girl
Electra Woman & Dyna Girl puts a fresh, new twist on Sid and Marty Krofft’s cult classic ‘70s TV series. Starring YouTube sensations Grace Helbig as Electra Woman and Hannah Hart as Dyna Girl, the crime fighting duo take their super personas and crime fighting chops up a notch when they move from small town Ohio to the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles. (Fullscreen/Legendary Digital)

Party Girl

Party Girl
A scripted comedy created by Lisa Schwartz and Lacey Marisa Friedman that tells the story of an overachieving superstar, played by Lisa herself, who is forced to take a humiliating low-wage job and learns that it ain’t easy to make an honest living. (New Form Digital/Maker Studios)

Relationship Status
Split between New York and LA, Relationship Status is an ensemble dramedy following an interweaving cast of 20 and 30 - somethings as they experience the highs and lows of dating in the digital age, all told through the lens of social storytelling. (StyleHaul)

Sing It!
Sing It!, an original scripted series on YouTube Red, pays homage to the singing competition genre with a unique twist, taking us behind the scenes in a scripted comedy format, where every week the stakes of live television are raised even higher. The first season of Sing It! brings us through the ups and downs when a long-running executive producer is fired and a newcomer threatens to offset the balance between the show’s quirky contestants, duplicitous executives, and rollicking crew. (YouTube Red)

Sing It!

Vlogumentary
YouTube may have begun as a website for videos of cats and funny babies, but it is now home to vloggers: video diarists who have conjured a massive audience and wild financial success by filming themselves, their thoughts and their daily lives. Vlogumentary pulls the curtain back on this new media revolution by following some of the top vloggers in the business, examining how they work, what they have to say and why their fans prefer videos of real life over traditional entertainment.
Preceded by an episode of Song Voyage, created by Portal A and co-created by the Gregory Brothers
A subversive comedy following the Gregory Brothers, our musical heroes, as they travel the world to band together with offbeat musicians in remote locales. In each episode, the Gregory Brothers transform the various unforeseen challenges they encounter into wild success stories using their idiosyncratic brand of comedy and music. (Maker Studios and Portal A)

Discussion on Indigenous Media’s – Film Incubator Project, with Josh Hutcherson and Jake Avnet, powered by The Black List
The Indigenous Media Film Incubator, in partnership with actor/producer Josh Hutcherson and Michelle Hutcherson's Turkeyfoot Productions, and powered by The Black List, is aimed at discovering and mentoring emerging filmmakers. Through the incubator, Indigenous Media has committed $100,000 to produce five short films from generation-defining screenplays that feature core characters in their late teens to late twenties, one of which Hutcherson will direct. The incubator will help new storytellers navigate the process of taking their story from the page to the screen and create films that can thrive on digital/emerging platforms. There is also the potential to fund and produce feature-length films based on the shorts.

TRIBECA DIGITAL CREATORS MARKET PARTICIPANTS

Zero Point

Gregory Bayne is a filmmaker and documentarian best known for his films Jens Pulver: Driven and Bloodsworth - An Innocent Man. Christian Lybrook is a writer and filmmaker whose short films have screened at festivals worldwide. Jointly, they co-created the award winning series Zero Point, which was part of the IFP Screen Forward Lab and Tribeca N.O.W 2015.

Matt Bellassai is a writer, comedian, and Internet personality, who writes frequently about pop culture, humor, and the struggles of daily life as a twenty-something man-child. The writer, producer, and star of BuzzFeed's Whine About It; he took home the 2016’s People's Choice Award for Favorite Social Media Star. Bellassai resides on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Matthew Clarke and David Milchard are the creators behind Convos With My 2-Year-Old and many other manifestations of absurdity. Born and bred in the wilds of Canada, the multi-hyphenates have spent most of their adult lives making stuff, whether it be in the form of digital series, film, TV, music, or live comedy.

Jon Cozart

Jon Cozart is a graduate of UT Film School, whose education helped him skyrocket to viral stardom with his comedic YouTube videos. In only five years, Cozart has gained worldwide fame, amassing over 3 million subscribers and over 250 million lifetime video views.

Gaby Dunn is a writer, journalist, YouTuber, actress, and comedian in Los Angeles. She and her comedy partner Allison Raskin write, perform in, and produce the successful comedy YouTube channel Just Between Us. She was was one of Paper Magazine’s 10 Comedians To Watch In 2015 and her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine, The Boston Globe, Playboy, Refinery 29, Women’s Health Magazine, Vulture, Buzzfeed Video and Thought Catalog among others.

Jordan Fish is always looking for the best ways to tell stories that are honest, personal, and bravely idiosyncratic. His work combines emotional storytelling with the cinematic and surreal. He recently wrote and directed an interactive pilot that lays the groundwork for a new kind of digital series.

Andrew, Michael, Evan, and Sarah Gregory are The Gregory Brothers, known for their YouTube series Auto-Tune the News and Songify This!, wherein they make songs out of stuff that wasn’t intended to be a song. Their YouTube channel, schmoyoho (accent on the “yo”) has over 700 million lifetime views.

With more than 10 million followers across all social media platforms, Marcus Johns is one of the most followed users in the social space. He recently starred in AwesomenessTV’s feature film Expelled and has been tapped to create content for a number of big brands including MTV, AXE, Pepsi, HP, Ford, and T-Mobile.

Zach King — with over 20 million fans worldwide — is a Vine, Instagram, YouTube, and overall social media sensation, known for his hilariously magical, digital, slight of hand video creations. His work has landed him features on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, Adweek, People Magazine, and most recently, CBS's popular reality TV show, The Amazing Race!

Mikey Murphy is a multi-hyphenate who originally made a name for himself with his ever popular Challenge and Sketch/Vlog Comedy style videos. He has gained over 650,000 subscribers on YouTube and built a dedicated following across all of his social platforms. In 2015, Mikey starred as Beckett on AwesomenessTV's hit series Royal Crush. In addition, Mikey recently wrapped shooting Lionsgate's Dirty Thirty starring alongside Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart which is set to come out in 2016.

Ingrid Nilsen has amassed over 7 million followers across all her social channels and over 3.5 million subscribers on her YouTube channel alone since launching her channel in 2009, YouTube sensation and lifestyle guru. Her incredible fan engagement and dedication to making viewers feel loved has earned her a spot as one of the most subscribed-to lifestyle gurus on YouTube. She has been a Covergirl Glambassador since July 2014 and was a Judge on Lifetime's “Project Runway: Threads.” She was recently named one of the UN’s Change Ambassadors wherein she will be tasked to raise awareness about and aim to end discrimination against girls and women. She was also recently named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Top 25 Digital Stars.

Turning Point

With nearly 3 million subscribers on YouTube, Joe Penna (known online as MysteryGuitarMan) is a Brazilian director known for his science fiction short films and inventive music videos.

Tim Pool is an American journalist covering international conflict and crisis. Pool's coverage for VICE.com, as well as his groundbreaking livestream coverage of the 2011 protest movement, has been featured by international media outlets including The Guardian, Reuters, The New York Times, NBC, FastCompany, and Al Jazeera English. In 2014 he joined Fusion as the Director of Media Innovation.

Allison Raskin grew up in Scarsdale, NY and then moved across the country to get a BFA in screenwriting from USC (her parents are still recovering). She writes and stars in the popular YouTube comedy channel, Just Between Us. Her work is also featured on BuzzFeed, SourceFed and one infamous Payless commercial.

Allison Raskin

Jimmy Tatro is the creator and star of the YouTube channel, Life According to Jimmy. This channel has amassed over 2M subscribers and over 300M video views. He has starred in the 2014 summer comedy 22 Jump Street and can also be seen in Grown Ups 2 and Blue Mountain State: The Movie. He tours the country performing stand up comedy

Musician, singer, vlogger, YouTube personality, and spokeswoman for Body Positivity, Meghan Tonjes is a true multi-hyphenate. Her YouTube videos have garnered over 25 million views, she's had multiple videos go viral, and has appeared as a guest and performed on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Last year through her music and a unique posting on Instagram, she founded and launched the Booty Revolution. Her mission is to engage in and provoke thoughtful and honest conversations, as well as promote body positivity in all communities. Meghan posts 7-days a week on YouTube and her posts include original music, reactions, frequently asked questions, cover songs, vlogs, and more. She can next be seen hosting SmartTV's series SEXish, and New Form Digital's pilot Intricate Vengeance.

Tony Valenzuela is an award-winning writer/director and creator of BlackBoxTV, the #1 most-subscribed and watched sci-fi/horror channel on the internet. BlackBoxTV Presents, an anthology series (in the vein of The Twilight Zone) is the longest-running scripted drama online. He has collaborated with Jon Turtletaub, CBS, Coca Cola, Fox Studios, the Sundance Institute, Guillermo del Toro & Legendary Pictures, as well as Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's New Form Digital.

TRIBECA N.O.W CREATORS (and Tribeca Digital Creators Market Participants)

The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo

Brian Jordan Alvarez, The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo

Brian is an LA based actor and filmmaker with a thriving YouTube channel. He recurs on Jane the Virgin. He screen tested for SNL this past fall in NY but HASN'T HEARD BACK but EVERYTHING'S FINE. He's appeared on Hot in Cleveland, Life in Pieces, and is on the sketch show Gay Skit Happens.

Maria Angelico, Movement

Maria Angelico is the creator and writer of Movement. Maria's passion lies in telling stories of vulnerability through a truthful, dynamic and often humorous style. With over 15 years of acting experience on the Australian big and small screens it seems a natural progression for her to write. Movement marks her first writing endeavor.

Andrew DeYoung

Andrew DeYoung is a filmmaker from the middle of California. His work has been featured on Adult Swim, MTV, Netflix and has received three Vimeo Staff Picks.

Ohio

Jack Dishel, :DRYVRS

Jack Dishel is the creator/star of the comedy web series :DRYVRS, which chronicles Dishel's adventures as a car service passenger. The first episode (which amassed over six million views on its first day of release, and over twenty million views within two weeks) stars Macaulay Culkin as an overly emotional and crazy driver dealing with abandonment issues.

Akilah Hughes

Akilah Hughes is a writer, stand-up comedian and YouTuber residing in Brooklyn. Her work has been viewed millions of times on Refinery29, Huffington Post, MTV and on her YouTube channel, It's Akilah, Obviously! She's a correspondent for Fusion and a 2015 Sundance fellow. This fall, Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is publishing a collection of her personal essays.

Hannah Jacobs

Hannah is a British animator and illustrator and a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London. She has produced work for a variety of different projects ranging from animated shorts and music videos to infographics and editorial illustration.

Mel

Tom O'Brien and Jessie Barr, OM City

Tom is an actor/writer/director whose first feature, Fairhaven, premiered at TFF 2012. His second feature, Manhattan Romance stars Katherine Waterston and is now streaming on Netflix worldwide. Jessie is an actor/writer/producer. She is the lead in OM City. Her other credits include: 59E59th, Joe's Pub, EST, Lincoln Center and Law & Order: SVU.

Jacob T. Swinney

Jacob T. Swinney is a Baltimore based filmmaker who is best known for his acclaimed video essays and supercuts. Focusing mainly on filmmaking patterns and the techniques of specific directors, Swinney's work has earned millions of views worldwide.

Amelia Umuhire, Polyglot

Amelia Umuhire is a Rwandan-German filmmaker and the creator of Polyglot. She is currently living in Berlin and working as an editor on film and music video projects. Polyglot has won Best German Webseries at the Berlin Webfest and Best International Web Series at the Geneva Film Festival Tous Ecrans.

Polyglot

Radhika Vaz and Nadia Parvez Manzoor, Shugs & Fats

Shugs & Fats is a comedy web-series about two Hijabis on a quest to reconcile their long held cultural beliefs with a new life in “liberated” Brooklyn.

Zenga Bros.

Zenga Bros. produce participatory documentary films as a method to bring creativity to the streets, to surprise and encourage one another in our everyday lives. “Our mission is the Eccentrification of the World.” “Ridiculous times demand ridiculous measures.” “We are still foolish enough to believe that creativity can redeem the world.”

Passes and Tickets for the 2016 Festival

Passes, including the Hudson and Festival Hub Passes, are on sale now at tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets. The Festival Hub Pass provides access for one to all public events at the Festival Hub at Spring Studios throughout the Festival, including interactive and virtual reality installations, the Virtual Arcade, Tribeca Storyscapes and DEFCON exhibits, Interactive Day and Imagination Day, select Tribeca Talks events, special screenings, live music and performances, as well as Pass Holder Lounges with food and drinks. It also provides access to the Disruptive Innovation Awards, two screening vouchers redeemable for evening/weekend or matinee-priced tickets, discounted rates on festival screening tickets, and an invitation to a Tribeca Film Festival Filmmaker Party. The Festival Hub Pass costs $550.

The Hudson Pass provides access for one to all public events at the Festival Hub, as well as Pass Holder Lounges with food, and drinks. It also provides access to all evening/weekend and matinee screenings, all Tribeca Talks, the Disruptive Innovation Awards, and a Tribeca Film Festival Filmmaker Party. The Hudson Pass costs $1,250.

Advance selection ticket packages are now on sale. All advance selection packages can be purchased online here, or by telephone at (646) 502-5296 or toll free at (866) 941-FEST (3378).

Single tickets cost $20.00 for evening and weekend screenings, $10.00 for weekday matinee screenings, and $40.00 for Tribeca Talks panels and special screenings. Single ticket sales begin Tuesday, March 29 and can be purchased online, by telephone, or at one of the Ticket Outlets, located at Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea (260 W. 23rd Street), and Brookfield Place (250 Vesey Street). The 2016 Festival will offer ticket discounts on general screenings and Tribeca Talks panels for students, seniors, and select Downtown Manhattan residents. Discounted tickets are available at Ticket Outlet locations only.

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