Woah. indieWIRE is reporting that Geoff Gilmore, a key player at the Sundance Film Festival for almost two full decades, is leaving that festival to take a job as Chief Creative Officer at Tribeca Enterprises, the New York organization that, amongst other things, is responsible for mounting the Tribeca Film Festival.
It seems too soon to assess What It All Means, but obviously, beyond each Festival’s assorted trials and tribulations, Sundance and Tribeca have had very different identities. Sundance is primarily associated with a certain type of actor-driven independent drama; Tribeca, in its brief history, has been most successful at unearthing international gems.
Of course, this is not the first sign that Tribeca has an interest in moving in more of a Sundance direction. In late 2007, Tribeca announced plans to streamline in the hopes of becoming more significant as an indie film market. At the time, Nancy Schafer lamented, “we haven’t had our Sex, Lies & Videotape yet. That’s what we want, and that’s what the industry wants.” Tribeca 2008 was my favorite installment of the festival yet, but beyond Jury Prize winner Let the Right One in, which was not a world premiere, it came and went without a breakout narrative hit. In light of this, the luring of Gilmore seems like the next logical step towards Tribeca’s long-ago stated mission.
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