Hollywood has had a fitful, often antagonistic relationship with new media.
But far from the Hollywood Hills, at several prominent film festivals, it's a different story entirely.
Sundance, Tribeca and a number of regional festivals are taking to YouTube, social media sites and video-on-demand with enthusiasm. They believe these platforms are an efficient way of helping low-budget filmmakers at their competitions find distribution.
And this becomes even more true as studios increasingly engage in ruthless belt-tightening -- severely constricting the kind of challenging artistic fare that once characterized the independent film business. 
By serving as lab rats for new distribution models, festivals hope to discover fresh revenue streams and opportunities to highlight the films in their competition.
Among the new media attempts cropping up across the festival scene:
-- Tribeca will launch a $45 virtual package of 25 feature and short films that will air on the internet starting Friday as part of its Virtual Tribeca program. The festival itself began Wednesday.
-- The Boston Film Festival accepted an iPhone application -- an interactive murder mystery entitled "Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill" -- into its competition this month.
-- Online film distributor SnagFilms partnered with film festivals such as Outfest and Hot Docs last summer to make nonfiction films available digitally.
-- Sundance, Tribeca and South by Southwest all have begun offering movies from their festivals via video-on-demand.
The intent of all these film festivals is to broaden their reach. And in the case of Virtual Tribeca, subscribers will get more than just access to films -- they'll get a sense of what it would be likely to actually attend the events by being able to watch streaming video of panel discussions, Q&As with writers and directors and red-carpet events.
"We're trying to keep pushing the boundaries," Geoff Gilmore, chief creative officer at Tribeca Enterprises, told TheWrap. "The old days are over -- you can no longer just build it and hope that they will come."
And Gilmore insists it will be profitable. He says the group is making a big advertising splash to promote the offering -- helped in part by its relationship with corporate sponsor American Express.
However, the virtual media pass is only good for a week, which may limit the number of people who are willing to pay such a high price for limited access to content, says Amy Greenlaw, whose company Film Pop! specializes in digital film promotion.
Tribeca says that's not a valid criticism.
"Eight days seems robust -- plus, the pass is cheap when you realize you get all these films that you can watch as many times as you want," Nancy Schafer, executive director of the Tribeca Film Festival, told TheWrap.
Of course, even new-media boosters at the various film festivals admit that it's early yet, and the full potential of these new attempts has yet to be realized, regardless of whether the Tribeca program soars or bellyflops.
