Tribeca Festival Expands Tent To Welcome Social Media Creators At 25th Anniversary Edition In 2026

For its 25th anniversary edition next June, the Tribeca Festival is expanding its tent to include social media creators.

Organizers said Thursday that Tribeca will be the first major film festival to feature videos widely seen on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube alongside more traditional fare.

The NOW strand launched in 2014 and has welcomed projects like Lena Waithe’s Hello Cupid, Shaina Feinberg’s Dinette, and Barret O’Brien and Mark Duplass’ The Long Long Night. Elvira Lind’s The Letter Room, a 2020 NOW selection, picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short the following year. Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, who created High Maintenance for Vevo before its pickup by HBO, have also had work featured in Tribeca NOW.

Tribeca has long sought to incorporate new platforms into its offerings, spotlighting transmedia, gaming, podcasting and a wide range of interactive work. The fest showcased early mobile filmmaking with the Nokia 6682 in 2005, gave YouTube-native series a wider profile via a partnership with Maker Studios in 2012 (two years before the company’s acquisition by Disney), and forged co-ventures with Vine and Snapchat later in the 2010s.

“Storytelling is evolving – and so is Tribeca,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of fest parent Tribeca Enterprises. “For 25 years, we’ve been drawn to new forms of creative expression and the artists pushing those boundaries. Today’s creators are among the most inventive storytellers working in any medium. Expanding Tribeca NOW honors how audiences experience stories today – on every screen, in every form. That spirit of reinvention is what Tribeca was built on.”

Submissions are due February 5 and will be “will be evaluated holistically, celebrating not only standout pieces of content but also a creator’s full body of work and storytelling voice,” the festival said.

Creators have already had a home at Tribeca, which launched a dedicated vertical in 2024, teaming with Whalar Group. It has also positioned the UpNext Creators initiative as a digital showcase for emerging talent. In 2025, UpNext Creators made its in-person debut. with 12 standout creators walking red carpets and attending screenings.

“Tribeca’s interdisciplinary programming has always celebrated the best in cinematic storytelling across all platforms, injecting fresh creative voices into the independent ecosystem wherever they are found,” said Cara Cusumano, Tribeca Festival Director and SVP of Programming. “This evolution of our signature NOW program will not just connect breakout digital storytellers with new audiences, but also with the traditional film industry, broader creative community, and potential future collaborators the way we have been doing for filmmakers and artists for 25 years.”