MUMBAI: Manhattan Film Festival has filed suit in New York Supreme Court against the Tribeca Film Festival and the Tribeca Cinemas alleging that the defendants practiced unfair competition by misappropriating the Manhattan Film Festival‘s Virtual Film Festival concept. 

In 2010, the Tribeca Film Festival launched Tribeca Film Festival Virtual. The virtual festival included real-time chat with fellow film enthusiasts, live filmmaker Q&A‘s, live festival events, and online streaming of a sample of TFF selections. Also included was a web-based competition with the slogan The people have spoken.

Originally known as the Independent Features Film Festival, the Manhattan Film Festival was the first film festival in which film selection is done online via a web-based competition.

The festival was the vision of two independent filmmakers and originally housed at the Tribeca Cinemas. In 2008, Philip Nelson, president and founder of the Manhattan Film Festival, envisioned the first and only Virtual Film Festival.

The lawsuit alleges that personnel of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Tribeca Cinemas were present when Nelson‘s groundbreaking vision was laid out point by point at the Tribeca Cinemas as well as by email as part of his business dealings with Tribeca Cinemas.