(CBS/What's Trending) Cancel your flight to New York and that overpriced hotel you booked. Stay in your sweats, order in and don't get off your couch. The Tribeca Film Festival is coming right into your home, on demand.
Tribeca Film, a new distribution venture with American Express, is bringing the independent films from the festival to over 40 million homes across the country. Time Warner Cable, Cox, Comcast, Cablevision (iO), RCN, or Verizon Fios customers have access to the films On Demand. Others like DirecTV Cinema, Brighthouse Networks, Bresnan, Amazon On Demand, and Vudu also have deals with the film festival. If you connect your Amazon and Twitter accounts, the company will give you $6 credit towards the films if you tweet about it.
Not all the film festivals offerings are going to be offered. The program started with six films, four of which will be screened at the festival. They will release more films every six to eight weeks throughout the year.
"The Bang Bang Club""NEDS" "The Bleeding House" "Last Night""The High Cost of Living""Brother's Justice"
Yes, some might say that by putting these films On Demand, it kills the film festival experience. You can't noisily argue about the artistic merits of the film as the credits roll or ask the filmmakers during the question and answer panels what they really meant when they used the color red in that scene. You can't wait in line to get a ticket only to find out that it's sold out or experience the film for the first time with a bunch of random movie buffs.
While nothing still beats being at the film festival itself -- well, at least until we get holovision -- Twitter and the online world can replicate that community experience. Users are tweeting about the films they saw online and telling their friends and the rest of the online community what is worth watching and what they want to watch.
Now, excuse me while I pop some popcorn in my microwave and adjust the television so the glare doesn't get in my eyes. If you need me, I'll be staying in this weekend.
