ESPN and Tribeca Enterprises, which sponsors the Tribeca Film Festival, announced last week that they are partnering to form The Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival. The new festival will feature sports-based independent films and will debut this spring at the Tribeca Film Festival:
Targeted at both the film industry and sports film fans, the Festival will feature a complete program of film screenings, live events, online interactivity, and media extensions. An advisory board, comprising leaders in sports and film, is currently in formation."ESPN's collaboration with the Tribeca Film Festival demonstrates our continued commitment to serving sports fans by extending the discussion about sports overall," said Skipper. "Independent film has grown exponentially in the last few years, and sports-themed films have grown with it.
The Tribeca Film Festival has captured sports films like no other film festival and has proven to be creative, smart and passionate about nurturing films of all kinds. Together, we hope to inspire filmmakers to make sports-themed films with this new platform in mind and thereby raise the level of the genre."
"This brings together sports and film in an exciting new way," said Robert De Niro, Tribeca Film Festival co-founder.
The inaugural Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival will debut at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival (April 25 – May 5, 2007) and feature premiere screenings of sports-related narrative and documentary feature and short films, industry events and will include user generated online content curated by the festival’s programmers.
At the core of the festival will be the premiere screenings of independent feature films that will be seeking commercial distribution. The festival will also feature "Sports Saturday," where all the independent sports films will screen and special interactive community events will take place with opportunities to meet sports stars, filmmakers and actors.
"Filmmakers have long been captivated by the compelling storytelling inspired by sports," said Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Film Festival co-founder. "By combining forces with ESPN, the world's leading sports brand, we will not only serve passionate sports fans but build new audiences for sports filmmakers and their films, on a national and international basis, at the festival as well as on a year-round basis."
This appears to be a very smart match--ESPN will promote the festival on TV, radio, the Internet, and in print, and the festival in turn gets to raise the profile of undiscovered sports films that deserve a broader audience.
MPI film Freedom's Fury, which premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, was cited as one of the sports films for which the festival has become known.