Tribeca Film Festival is going Virtual in 2010! This year, even if you live nowhere near the Big Apple, you can participate in the Festival more than ever before. Instead of just looking at photo galleries and reading articles, and wishing you were there, you can be a part of the action, as it happens!

Starting on March 15, Tribeca Film Festival Virtual will offer robust video content introducing you to the films, filmmakers, movers and shakers that make the Festival happen. You can watch short films from Festivals past, trailers from the 2010 Festival films, and exclusive videos we are creating just for you! You will also be able to watch our opening press conference as it happens, while chatting with other film fans across the country.
 
Then, on April 23, we will launch Tribeca Film Festival Virtual: Premium, an 8-day full Festival experience, available to a select number of participants across the United States. Beginning on March 8 (for American Express Cardmembers; March 15 for the general public), film fans can purchase a TFFV: Premium pass, allowing them full backstage access during the heart of the Festival in NYC.

From April 23-30, passholders can watch eight or more feature films as they premiere at the Festival in New York, interact with filmmakers and industry insiders in live Q&As, and enjoy all the glitz and glamour of prime red carpet coverage as it happens. You will feel like you are there, minus the hassle of plane tickets, hotel rooms, and subway delays.

Photo credit: William Rexer II

As you know, film festivals have opening nights, and Tribeca Film Festival Virtual is no different. This year, TFFV will kick off with the new film from veteran indie writer/actor/director Edward Burns. Nice Guy Johnny is the charming story of a 25-year-old (yes, named Johnny) already struggling with the baggage of adulthood: a demanding fiancé, an emasculating father-in-law-to-be, and the prospect of a boring grown-up job to replace his beloved radio gig in San Francisco.

When Johnny (Matt Bush) goes to New York for the new-job interview (set up by his fiancé's father), he spends the weekend with his rakish uncle (Burns), a Peter Pan of a bachelor who bartends, picks up married women, and schmoozes his way into free stuff from his lovers, like a house in the Hamptons for the weekend. In a generational reversal, Johnny is appalled by his uncle's behavior, until he meets a young tennis player named Brooke (Kerry Bishé).

Johnny is a Ben Braddock for our times, and the film is a classic New York story from one of our favorite filmmakers.
 
We're looking forward to seeing you at Tribeca Film Festival Virtual! Please check back next week to purchase your Premium pass. In the meantime, sign up for the Tribeca Newsletter so you'll never be out of the loop.