ALZA Festival's NYC Finalists Show How Wide Vertical Storytelling Has Become
Updated: Oct 9
The first ALZA Festival has not happened yet, but the New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment has already given us a useful glimpse of what it might become. On September 29, it named five finalists for its “Created in NY” showcase. All five will premiere independently produced work at the October 16–18 festival; one storyteller will receive a “Made in NY” award on the final day.
If you hear “vertical drama” and immediately picture only a billionaire, a wedding dress and a very expensive slap, look at this lineup. The official finalists include a private-eye mystery, a dangerous third date, a comedy informed by the filmmaker's experience of Tourette's, a friendship and dating comedy, and a series about a New York building superintendent. Those are different genres, voices and ways of using the city. They share a screen shape, not a single plot formula.
What was announced
The five finalists are Melissa Becraft and Sarah Pribis forInvestigator, Investigator; Jesse Fisher and Sasha Herman forWatch Hill; Kyle C. Mumford forKyle Has Tourette's; Christina Richardson forBesties; and Romel Rodriguez forThe Super NYC. The city says their new work will debut in the showcase and was produced independently of its media office. The award recipient has not been chosen yet.
ALZA describes itself as a festival dedicated to microdrama and vertical storytelling, with screenings and an industry program in New York City. Its published program guide includes narrative work, conversations and creator events. That matters because an industry cannot be built only from view counts. It also needs spaces where a writer can see what other people are trying, meet collaborators and talk about the work as work.
Why a writer should care
The most interesting thing here is variety. A thriller about a third date has a natural short-episode engine: each new piece of information can change whether the audience trusts the person across the table. A comedy about a superintendent can use one building as a recurring world without making every episode the same. A personal comedy can draw tension from a character's specific life rather than borrowing the same romance hook that every app has already tested.
None of this means every experimental series will find a large audience or a buyer. A festival selection is not a distribution deal. It does, however, put a range of mobile-first stories in front of an audience and industry people who can discuss them in the same room. For someone trying to enter the field, that is more useful than another vague claim that “vertical is the future.” You can watch the work and decide what actually holds your attention.
What to watch next
The festival runs October 16–18. Watch which projects earn attention after the screening, whether the creators continue the series, and what kinds of follow-up opportunities emerge. If you are planning your own project, ask a more practical question: can your premise produce a second, fifth and fifteenth episode without repeating its first trick?
Source:NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment announcement;ALZA program and ticket information.
Thinking of entering vertical drama?
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Viola Musaraj is a writer, novelist, micro and vertical drama producer, and interactive narrative designer with more than 140 million reads worldwide.
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