Ninth Tribeca Film Festival goes 'virtual'

NEW YORK - This year the annual Tribeca Film Festival, which began as a very location-specific event to help rejuvenate the Tribeca neighborhood in New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, won't just be screening in Manhattan.

A new distribution company, Tribeca Film, founded by the festival's parent company Tribeca Enterprises, will make a dozen films available on TV via video-on-demand (VOD).

A "virtual festival" will also stream eight movies and 18 shorts online for 5,000 customers willing to shell out $45. Among the offerings are Edward Burns' Nice Guy Johnny, the hermaphrodite comedy Spork and The Sentimental Engine Driver.