The New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) has gone all in on vertical storytelling partnering with ALZA Festival, a first-of-it-kind microseries festival.
The event will platform up and coming vertical storytellers in the microdramas and social video categories Oct. 16-18. ALZA will include vertical storytelling education opportunities for New Yorkers as well as a “Created in NY” showcase.
The festival is the city’s first dive into the buzzy format. ALZA will feature a Former Prodigy Media’s microdrama “Billionaires’ Broken Vow” starring Oscar nominee Eric Roberts, a “Pride and Prejudice” microdrama and a present-day “Wuthering Heights” adaptation set on an American Ranch.
“Vertical storytelling has evolved into one of the fastest-growing forms of entertainment in the world, yet until now it hasn’t had a dedicated cultural home – so we created ALZA to change that,” said Pete Torres, founder and CEO of ALZA Festival. “Our goal is to bring together creators, platforms, studios, brands, and audiences to celebrate this incredible new medium while helping shape its future.”
“There is no better place than New York City to launch that conversation, and we’re proud to work with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment to spotlight the city’s next generation of storytellers,” he added.
The “Created in NY” showcase will give a select number of creators the opportunity to present their vertical content for the chance to win the “Made in NY” Award. The five finalists for the showcase will be announced next week.
The festival will feature vertical series premieres, creator Q&A’s and immersive activations, all spotlighting microdramas and vertical storytelling.
MOME is also working with Director Zane to produce a promotional video that will highlight the Created in NY campaign. The video collaboration does not have a release date, yet. Zane most recently directed “Best in Class,” a vertical competition series in partnership with Xfinity.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated that MOME was teaming with Zane Productions on a microseries, but MOME subsequently clarified that details of such partnerships have not been finalized.
