9th Annual North Fork TV Festival Unfolds: 'Little Festival That Can'

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“John Turturro is one of America’s greatest living actors. As a screenwriter and actor my earliest inspirations were Do the Right Thing, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski. The common thread in these brilliant films was a stand-out performance by Turturro, crafting a singular portrayal of ill-fated egoism,” said Mike Stern, North Fork TV Festival artistic director. “We are lucky to have an Emmy-winner whose recent Emmy-nominated performances in HBO’s The Night Of and Apple TV+’s Severance are not-to-be-missed television. I cannot wait for our audience to benefit from John’s one-of-a-kind insight into the creative process.”

The event will feature a conversation between Turturro and Newsday reporter Elisa Distefano and co-founder of Eagle Point Hotel Partners Erik Warner. A series of questions will include how the TV industry has evolved throughout his career and an audience Q & A will follow.

This year, the festival will also fete Marcia Gay Harden as the recipient of the North Fork TV Festival “Canopy Award.”

Stern has announced the winners of this year’s Independent Pilot competition. Chosen for their artistic merit and commercial potential, the four winners will screen on Northfork.tv.

The winners are:

Swipe NYC – Sue Zarco Kramer (Comedy)

The Sessions – Vince Eisenson and Al Julian (Drama)

The Ladies – Juliana Piscina (Comedy)

Typical Dan Peterson Stuff – Scott Kruse, Josh Long, Kurt Quinn (Sketch Comedy)

The North Fork TV Festival, Doyle said, “celebrates the evolution of television, both mainstream and independent, bringing together the minds of actors, executives, writers, and directors.”

Held annually in Greenport, the festival supports independent program development and embraces innovative voices from around the world. Founded in 2015, The North Fork TV Festival is a year-round 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

“We wanted to create a festival celebrating independent television production,” Doyle told Patch in 2020. “The reason we picked Greenport is because that’s where we live and we love the village. We’ve been going to the Sundance Film Festival for years, and Greenport reminds us very much of Park City, Utah, with its local independently-owned theater and waterfront.”

Each year an expert panel selects four independent pilots to be screened at the festival and additionally mentored through development and eventual production of the pilots into on-air series.

Doyle, who lives with his wife and two children both on the North Fork and in New York City, spoke with Patch about this year’s event.

“This marks our ninth year,” he said. “2025 will be our 10th year, which is insane to think about — it seems like only yesterday we started the festival.”

Doyle reflected on the evolution of the festival’s vision: “If you were to rewind the clock and ask me the caliber of honorees, the Academy Award-winning actors that would be returning and attending the NFTV festival, I could not ever have dreamed or, fathomed, the lineup we put together,” he said. “The number of submissions now, when we do our independent television pilot competiton, is in the hundreds — it attracts applicants from around the world to apply.”

The festival also features panel discussions, and, he said: “The panels we put together, they’re real industry-level conversations. The people we have visiting are people who want to be in the television business. These are people that are in it now, up close, whether they’re casting top series or they are show running ‘Narcos’ and ‘Blue Bloods’ — these are all shows that I love watching.”

One of television’s most iconic actors, Kelsey Grammer, will be back for his third year this year, Doyle said. “He loves Greenport, the vibe that the village has is very much part of Kelsey’s DNA,” he said. “He looks forward to coming back every year. And we’re very grateful for that.”

Greenport has continued to emerge and evolve as an artistic destination, just as the festival flourishes each year, Doyle said.

“This little festival, has, over nine years, created millions of impressions — digital, print, television, radio — for the village,” he said. “People know about it on both coasts. Again, if you were in Los Angeles nine or 10 years ago and asked anyone about Greenport, would they have known about it? I don’t know, but I think now, we’re seen as ‘The Little Festival that Can.'”

The festival itself, Doyle said, is still “very much a start-up. But the artistic community has discovered us as a place that artists really love attending, going to and gathering.”

Doyle said the South Fork has long been known for the Hamptons International Film Festival.

“The HIFF is well-known on the Academy, Oscar-winning track. If your film is going to be up for an Oscar, you want it to play or premier at the HIFF,” he said.

But, while the Hamptons International Film Festival sets an industry standard, the North Fork TV Festival’s spotlight is focused on episodic television, not film. “What we brought was our own, distinct taste to the North Fork, where you still have phenomenal food and wine, and you have the water. But it’s just different from the South Fork, and so, of course, our festival would be episodic television and not film.”

Discussing Marcia Gay Harden’s honor this year, Doyle explained that the coveted Canopy Award has been part of the festival since its inception. “Our first artistic director, who came up with the name ‘Canopy Honoree’, was Jerry Foley.”

Foley, the longtime director of “The Late Show With David Letterman”, died in March following a tragic ski accident.

“I remember being in the room when he came up with the word ‘canopy,'” Doyle said. “He had spent time in the vineyards, and he knew what the canopy stood for. It’s the analogy that you need someone to hold everyone up on set — that’s what the canopy does at the vineyards. And so we just look for individuals who have, over the decades, have done not just one, but many series— that they have held up, and embodied, what we think of as episodic TV. And they have a commitment to New York State.”

Harden, he said, has a home in New York and has done much of her work in New York. “She was a natural first choice,” he said.

Speaking about the level of Academy Award-winning talent the festival draws, Doyle said Greenport is a siren song for creative spirits. “Actors talk to each other and so, when they leave and have a good time and tell their friends — when we approach them again, unlike the cold calling and the dialing I had to do nine or 10 years ago, it’s just a complete different reception and process and appreciation.”

Carrie Preston, the festival’s honoree last year, “was not only an Academy-winning actress, but also just so appreciative of what we’re doing,” he said.

Despite its Hollywood glitter, the festival is still small and intimate, Doyle said.

“This is probably our final year of of pivoting post Covid,” he added.

During the pandemic, the North Fork TV festival led the way in ingenuity, staging the event as a drive-in at the Castello di Borghese Vineyard.

Click Here:

Speaking about that Covid experience, Doyle said: “The one thing I’ve learned in nine years is the only thing consistent with the NFTV festival is change.”

One of the most rewarding experiences over the years, he said, is seeing young people who have volunteered at the festival now working in the business, watching their talents unfold.

The festival itself is still spreading its fledgling wings, he said. “We’re still very young and the caliber of the people we get to bring in every year just keeps getting higher and higher. I don’t think we’re too far away from, hopefully, having a physical presence one day on the North Fork — but all good things take a lot of time.”

Doyle said the festival passes are a “wonderful deal,” with all-inclusive meals at American Beech and the Sound View, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks. “Then on top of it, you’re able to meet and approach these actors in settings that have dozens of people around them, not thousands. Where do you get that experience, at that price point?”

The festival promises an experience to remember, Doyle said. “No one has ever come to the North Fork TV Festival and said they didn’t have a good time,” he said. “This is really a celebratory event and everyone leaves having a really good, fun time. You’re able to see the artwork these artists have been involved with and put together, and see what they have to say about working in the business.”

Looking ahead, the “hope is that this festival will one day evolve into a marketplace — that’s the big, grand goal,” Doyle told Patch. “The second goal is the more practical goal — that more artists will get full-time work because their script was selected, or they were in a pilot. Or they bought a festival pass or met a manager or agent at the festival. That reminds me of why we do what we do.”

Lastly, Doyle said, his aim is to leave a rich legacy. “My wife Lauren and I, the way in which we give back to the community that we’re raising our daughters in, is with this — we are a charitable organization. I want this festival to outlive me and one day, some other people will take the reins and keep it going on the North Fork. As I’m out there and my children are growing up, we will continue to happily support it and work hard — but we want this to be a cultural organization not for years, but for decades.”

It’s the people that he’s met through the process that symbolize the most rewarding part of the festival, Doyle said. “The saddest part of the Covid year, was that while it was great — the drive-in worked — you know what happens at the end of a drive in? Everyone drives away and you’re in an empty field at Borghese by yourself and it’s dark and it’s cold. So it’s really the personal interactions. “

If he were to give advice to emerging artists, writers, directors, Doyle said: “Look, the television business is brutal and it’s not getting easier, it’s getting harder. The common characteristic that I’ve met in people who’ve professionaly succeeded is that you just never give up. You just have to be relentless. If you’re a writer, that means that you just you never stop writing. if you’re an actor, it means you never stop auditioning, and if you’re a producer, it means you just never stop pitching. But it’s very competitive and requires an incredible amount of not only talent, but hard work.”

Ticket sales end soon; to purchase, click here.

For more information, including the full list of events and screenings at this year’s festival, click hereand follow @NorthForkTV on Twitter and Instagram.

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