Tribeca Film Festival to go on this month digitally amid coronavirus outbreak

The 19th edition of the the Tribeca Film Festival will go on online.(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Fe)

The postponed Tribeca Film Festival will go forward digitally this month, organizers said Friday.

Films eligible for awards will be judged remotely via streams, and winners will be announced on the event’s website in time for the program’s original dates, according to the festival.

“Tribeca is about resiliency, and we fiercely believe in the power of artists to bring us together,” Jane Rosenthal, the festival’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a news release. "We were founded after the devastation of 9/11 and it’s in our DNA to bring communities together through the arts.”

The 19th edition of the event was officially postponed March 12.

But programming will begin just two days after its initially planned start date, if not in a brick-and-mortar setting. The festival said four 30-to-40 minute video programs will be available for viewing beginning April 17.

“There are certain programs we’d like to be able to do at a later time this year when that’s safe," Rosenthal told The Associated Press. “But this right now serves the filmmakers and the industry for what they need at this time.”