AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Nonprofit Marriage: Renewed Tribeca Film Institute Merging with Leading Filmmaker Funding Organization - IndieWire

In a time of persistent change for nonprofit organizations that seek to support independent filmmakers, two New York City based entities are merging, with the hopes of creating a more viable oufit for the field. Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal’s Tribeca Film Institute (a sibling of their for-profit Tribeca Film Festival) will join forces with Renew Media, the organization that has funneled millions of dollars in funding to indie filmmakers and artists over nearly twenty years. The news comes as arts funding for organizations and individual filmmakers seems to be in an increasing state of flux and as the changes have even sent some groups into extinction.

Hoping to “break the tradition” of nonprofit groups to create “an unprecedented arts organization,” the new Tribeca Film Institute will begin detailing ambitious goals on Monday morning as they announce the marriage of TFI and Renew. The organization will be lead by Renew Media’s Brian Newman, capping a deal that took more than a year to arrange. It combines the programs, staff, and boards of the two organizations. The move, which has no direct impact on the leadership of the six-year old Tribeca festival, seems aimed at launching a major organization to rival such established entities as the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, and the Independent Feature Project (IFP), although it will not be a membership group.

“What we are trying to say is that the Institute is a year-round home for filmmakers and new media artists,” Brian Newman told indieWIRE this weekend as the Tribeca Film Institute began to get the word out about its move. “We are developing it into a true institute, based in New York, with an international focus.”

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