The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival will be taking place April 17-18 in lower Manhattan, New York, but if you can’t make it to the festival, you’ll still be able to get a great festival experience online!

The festival’s fourth annual Tribeca Online Festival will give digital viewers a front row access to exclusive Festival content. New to the festival this year is the festival’s #6SECFILMS Vine Competition, an online juried competition using the six-second, micro-movie making app. Filmmakers can submit their films in either the #genre, #auteur, #animate and #series categories, using the category hashtag and #6SECFILMS. The category shortlists will be released April 17 and will compete for cash prizes of $600. If you’ve got a film you want to enter, you have from now until midnight April 7. The winners will be announced by the Tribeca Online Festival April 26.

Also, the Tribeca Online Film Festival will offer free streaming of Festival films. Seven films–“Alias Ruby Blade: A Story of Love and Revolution”, “Lil Bub & Friendz”, and “Farah Goes Bang” (which will be streamed just after their Festival theatrical premieres), and short films “RPG OKC”, “Delicacy”, “The Exit Room” and “A Short Film About Guns” will be available on tribecaonlinefestival.com . Audiences will be able to vote on the best online feature and short through tribecaonlinefestival.com. The winners will receive a total of $16,000 in prize money.

Tribeca Film will also release 2013 TFF selections “What Richard Did,” “Greetings from Tim Buckley”, “Fresh Meat” and “The English Teacher” nationwide on demand during the Festival. The titles will be available in more than 50 million homes in the U.S. and Canada through all major cable video-on-demand providers, as well as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Xbox, Google Play and YouTube.

The online festival will also stream several high profile conversations during the physical festival as well as the 2013 TFF awards show April 25. Need internet? Sign up for sky broadband for unlimited broadband and talk packages.

Geoff Gilmore, chief creative officer of Tribeca Enterprises explained how the film festival is constantly trying to keep their audience engaged, either in person or through the internet.

“We are always looking for ways to expand our community and engage new audiences,” said Gilmore. “For the past three years, viewers nationwide have been able to take in a selection of Festival films and activities, even if they aren’t able to make it to Tribeca. This year we have expanded the opportunity for the public to participate in the Festival not just as observers, but also as creators through our first ever Vine competition, which is open to anyone with an imagination and a Vine app.”

More on the VOD and Tribeca Online Festival films is below. To learn more about the Tribeca Film Festival, check out the official site and log in, where you can also subscribe to the Tribeca Newsletter. Also, check out the film festival’s Facebook page and on Twitter @TribecaFilmFest (#TFF2013).

FREE STREAMING OF OFFICIAL FESTIVAL SELECTIONS:

Three feature titles and four short films from the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival will be available on TOF. Each film will have limited screening windows and capacity. Online viewers will be able to vote for the Best Tribeca Online Feature Film, a prize of $10,000, and the Best Tribeca Online Short Film, a prize of $5,000. Winners will be announced at the Tribeca Film Festival Awards on April 25.

The full list of feature films streamed on the Tribeca Online Festival is as follows:

• Alias Ruby Blade: A Story of Love and Revolution, directed by Alex Meillier, written by Tanya Ager Meillier and Meillier. (USA) – North American Premiere. Kirsty Sword Gusmão went to Timor-Leste to document injustice in an area closed to Western journalists. Over the next decade, she became the lynchpin that sustained the nation’s harrowing struggle for independence and met the man who would redefine the cause for which she was fighting. Using astonishing footage of the years-long resistance, director Alex Meillier presents a highly personal account of the courage needed to create a new democracy in modern times.

• Lil Bub & Friendz, directed by Andy Capper and Juliette Eisner. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Called “the most famous cat on the Internet,” the wide-eyed perma-kitten Lil Bub is the adorable embodiment of the Web’s fascination with all things cats. Join Lil Bub and her owner on a wild cross-country romp as they meet the Internet’s most famous cat-lebrities. Chock full of adorable kitties, hilarious videos and the dedicated cat enthusiasts who love them, Lil Bub & Friendz is a fun and hip peek behind the memes we know and love. Includes Mike “The Dude” Bridavsky, Ben Lashes, Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat, Keyboard Cat.

• Farah Goes Bang, directed by Meera Menon, written by Laura Goode and Menon. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Farah hits the road with her buddies to stump for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, hoping the trip will be her opportunity to finally shed her unwanted virginity. She soon finds her efforts on both political and sexual fronts continuously thwarted. Comically balancing that moment’s climate of intolerance with a universal coming-of-age tale, Farah Goes Bang paints a comic portrait of the overdue growing pains of a group of girlfriends and the country itself.

The full list of short films streamed on the Tribeca Online Festival is as follows:

• RPG OKC, Directed and written by Emily Carmichael, (USA), World Premiere. Two video game characters forge an unlikely romance.

• Delicacy, Directed by Jason Mann, written by Frieda Luk and Jason Mann, (USA), New York Premiere. A culinary connoisseur and a chef go on a hunt for a rare animal.

• The Exit Room, Directed and written by Todd Wiseman Jr, (USA), World Premiere. It is 2021, and imprisoned journalist Joseph Michaels faces government execution and contemplates a desperate escape attempt in order to return to his young family.

• A Short Film About Guns, Directed by Minos Papas, (Cyprus), (U.K.), (USA), World Premiere. Four experts on arms trafficking recount first-hand experiences with the black market and how the illegal flow of weapons facilitates loss of life and devastation.

TRIBECA FILM VIDEO-ON-DEMAND

• What Richard Did, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, written by Malcolm Campbell. (Ireland) – U.S. Premiere, Narrative. Charismatic Richard leads a group of devoted friends through the rituals of their final summer break together: partying on the beach, hazing younger students, hooking up. But the good times will not last forever. When jealousy leads to a senseless act, Richard’s perfect life unravels amid self-doubt, shame, grief and guilt. What Richard Did is a gripping dissection of an action and its consequences, featuring a stellar lead performance by Jack Reynor. A Tribeca Film release.

• Greetings from Tim Buckley, directed by Daniel Algrant, written by David Brendel, Emma Sheanshang and Algrant. (USA) – U.S. Premiere, Narrative. “Like father, like son” is a demanding expression for someone who never knew his dad. When young Jeff Buckley (Penn Badgley) is asked to participate in a tribute concert for his late musician father Tim, music opens his eyes to the artistic legacy that he is destined to follow. Imogen Poots co-stars in this quiet and powerful tribute to those legends sustained by admiration, love and, in this case, beautiful music. A Focus World and Tribeca Film release.

• Fresh Meat, directed by Danny Mulheron, written by Briar Grace-Smith. (New Zealand) – New York Premiere, Narrative. After a poorly executed escape from the police, a gang of dysfunctional criminals flees to the suburbs and gets more than it bargained for when it crash lands in the garage of an upper-class Maori family whose refined palates have developed a taste for human flesh. This action-packed horror comedy tells a blood-spattered tale of basement butchery and shifting allegiances as these unlikely adversaries enter a deadly showdown. A Tribeca Film release.

• The English Teacher, directed by Craig Zisk, written by Dan Chariton and Stacy Chariton. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Teacher Linda Sinclair (Julianne Moore) balances her staid home life with an incredible passion for her subject, but her routine is forever altered when a former star pupil and his unsupportive father reenter her life. Go-to television director Craig Zisk, whose credits include Scrubs, Weeds andUnited States of Tara, takes a turn on the big screen with this insightful comedy about self-discovery co-starring Greg Kinnear, Nathan Lane, Michael Angarano and Lily Collins. A Cinedigm and Tribeca Film release.”

Tribeca Film Festival

By Monique Jones

Monique Jones blogs about race and culture in entertainment, particularly movies and television. You can read her articles at Racialicious, and her new site, COLOR . You can also listen to her new podcast, What would Monique Say.

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