Tribeca Film Festival 2021 to add video games as an official selection
The Tribeca Film festival which has announced its 20th anniversary edition for June 2021 is adding video games as an official selection for the first time. In an announcement, organisers say that for years, video games have been none of a kind medium for storytelling, innovation, art and education. This festival, however, has welcomed games for the past ten years, exposing titles like League of Legends, God of War, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and so on.
Tribeca was far ahead for the time when in 2011 included L.A. Noire as the first video game ever honoured and accepted as part of the film festival official selection. What might have seemed then like a marketing trick, soon revealed the start of a movement that will bridge the gap between two art forms.
In 2021, video games will become eligible for the first Tribeca Games Award. The festival says it will honour games that demonstrate artistic excellence in storytelling. It will include titles created for web, console, virtual reality, augmented reality and mobile devices. It’s not a surprise that online games make an impact on different spheres of entertainment. With their innovative ways of presentation, they are considered as a tool that enables seamless provider vs audience communication. We’ll mention the online casino games as the most progressive and adaptable channel that changed its well-known traditional artform. From different themes, gameplay and providers offering personalised offers-they are here to change the identity of gameplay. Have a look at the list of providers offering no deposit bonuses at SlotsWise, including free spins and demo plays.
Along with these changes, Tribeca Games will introduce a new advisory board of game and film veterans to bring forward the presence of games at the festival. The panel will feature Geoff Keighley, video game journalist and The Game awards creator, Hideo Kojima (video game developer) Nia DaCosta (writer and producer), Sam Lake (creative director, Remedy Entertainment) director Jon Favreau, Bing Gordon (co-founder, Electronic Arts) and Kiki Wolfkill, head of Halo entertainment.
Tribeca’s film festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal says that Tribeca has a tradition to bring artists and diverse audiences together, to celebrate storytelling in all its forms. She adds that it’s fantastic to see how game creators develop these worlds on their own, with unique stories, characters and language. As storytellers want to say, they always have the interest to push the boundaries of storytelling on different platforms. Games offer a new realm of narrative expression that is both film and gaming. Where there was once a clear line between media, now the line is blurred, with stories becoming games and vice versa.
Casey Bates, the Vice President of Tribeca, offered that games have proven to be one of the most sophisticated mediums of today-not only with narrative, but also with incredible artistic mastery. It’s high time that film institutions formally recognise what this medium brings to the table in an age when movies are being coded. At the same time, video games are hosts to some of the most human screen performances. We’ve already seen how films influence so many game creators, but we’ve also seen how many filmmakers found their inspiration in the game culture.
In addition to the Tribeca Games Award, the titles showcased will be considered for the NOW creators market. This market is labelled as the first of its kind, a private industry market that brings together leading online and immersive storytellers to pitch projects to distributors.
The Tribeca Film festival is currently scheduled to take place from the 9th June to 20th June 2021.
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