Tribeca Festival Teams With Meta to Screen 20 Short Films for Free on Quest VR Headset, Facebook

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorTribeca Festival is entering the metaverse.Under a partnership with Meta, 20 titles from Tribeca’s shorts program will be available for the first time on the Meta Quest 2 virtual-reality headset as well as the Tribeca page on Facebook.

All of the shorts will stream for free during the festival’s run. The curated shorts collection spans entries dating back to 2019, including those that received less attention in 2020 and ’21 due to the pandemic.The Tribeca Shorts lineup includes 2022’s “Skin & Bone,” a 17-minute horror film starring Amanda Seyfried (pictured above) and Thomas Sadoski, directed and written by Eli Powers.

After a drifter (Sadoski) takes a job on a farm run by a reclusive woman (Seyfried), he begins to suffer from visions of men trapped inside the bodies of animals. “At Tribeca we always explore new ways of storytelling, so we are thrilled to partner with Meta and create our first shorts program to play in VR,” said Ben Thompson, head shorts programmer for Tribeca. “We have curated a range of Tribeca Festival films including out-of-this-world science fiction and impactful documentaries that will excite and inspire audiences in this new storytelling frontier.”Katie Leo, partner manager for entertainment partnerships at Meta, commented, “Using virtual reality to immerse people in these powerful stories — with themes tied to Juneteenth, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC — is the best way to reach new audiences now and in the future.”Separately, the 2022 Tribeca Festival, which runs June 8-19, will include a lineup of virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and participatory experiences from artists around the world.The 20 Tribeca Shorts will be available in the Venues area of Meta’s.