TV's Next Big Idea Is Here
More than two decades after Sundance and other film festivals began infusing American cinema with fresh, cutting-edge talent, characters and stories, a similar creative spirit is about to hit TV, thanks to the inaugural New York Television Festival, which will run from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3 in downtown Manhattan.
The event is the brainchild of Terence Gray, who once asked audiences Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as a writer for the smash-hit reality series. Now, as the founder and executive director of the NYTVF, he hopes to find out who wants to change the face of television by inviting would-be J.J. Abramses, Larry Davids and Mark Burnetts to compete for a chance to impress Hollywood heavyweights and maybe, just maybe, earn a shot at their very own show. "A lot of creative people went into film because there was a platform there for independent, next-generation artists who knew that if they made a movie, they could probably get it into the 100 or 20