The North Fork TV Festival is back in Greenport Village for its ninth year.
The North Fork TV Festival, founded in 2015, celebrates the evolution of both independent and mainstream television and brings together the minds of actors, executives, writers and directors.
The festival, which is held annually, supports independent program development and embraces both local and international innovative voices.
“There are tons of festivals that, if you independently produce a film, you can have that film shown and seen and people get excited about and hopefully distribute,” says Festival founder Noah Doyle. “We felt that didn’t exist for television pilots and so we started a competition nine years ago where people around the world could submit their pilot. What the organization would do is curate what we thought were the best four-to-six pilots of that year.”
This year’s festival kicks off on Tuesday, Aug. 27 at American Beach where Emmy-winning actor Richard Schiff, known for “The West Wing” and “The Good Doctor,” will be presented with the Ambassador for the Arts Award. The following evening, at The Halyard at the Sound View, actress Marcia Gay Harden will be receiving the 2024 Canopy Award.
Additionally, actor John Turturro will participate in a fireside chat with Sound View owner Erik Warner, moderated by Elisa DiStefano.
The winners of this year’s independent pilot competition are:
- “Swipe NYC” starring Lisa Edelstein (“House”), created by Sue Zarco Kramer (Comedy)
- “The Sessions” starring R. Keith Harris (“Dopesick”), created by Al Julian and Vice Eisenson (Drama)
- “The Ladies” starring Jessica Toltzis (“Your Honor”), created by Juliana Piscina (Comedy)
- “Typical Dan Peterson Stuff” created by and starring Scott Kruse, Josh Long, Kurt Quinn (Sketch)
The winners of this year’s pilot script competition are:
- Gregory Abbey for the coming-of-age drama, “Shark”
- Heidi-Marie Ferren for “Blackwoods Chief,” a Cherokee police detective drama.
Mike Stern, North Fork TV Festival’s artistic director, said the North Fork is a “premier destination for the independent television movement.”
“This year’s winners include a riveting therapy group for convicted killer, a coming-into-age comedy with a hilarious backdrop of online dating in Brooklyn, an off-the-wall sketch comedy, and the feel-good story of a high school girls basketball team,” Stern said in a press release.
There will also be a panel with veteran television showrunners Kevin Wade (“Blue Bloods”) and Chris Brancato (“Hotel Cocaine”) will take place during the festival. The panel will be moderated by Roy Ashton of the Gersh Agency. The conversation will reveal the creative and organizational process involved in developing and producing network and streaming content.
According to Doyle, the group has already started to think about next year’s festival, as it will mark a decade of the celebration of independent television.
“We will be in some theater [in] the 10th year,” he says. “That’s our goal. In addition to our local partners and all the other support, we hope and we’re excited, and we look forward to returning to a theater.”
For more information including the full list of events and screenings at this year’s festival visit northfork.tv and follow @NorthForkTV on twitter and instagram.
