PHOTOS: KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY, Cast and Creatives from THE GOOD PLACE, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, QUEEN SUGAR, WARRIOR and FEAR THE WALKING DEAD at IFC Center's 3rd Annual SPLIT SCREENS FESTIVAL

On Sunday, June 2, IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival continued with a Season 4 premiere screening of OWN’s Queen Sugar, executive produced by Ava DuVernay, Oprah Winfrey, Paul James and Anthony Sparks, who also serves as a showrunner. Following the Season 4 premiere episode screening, actors Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Kofi Siriboe and Rutina Wesley, showrunner and episode writer Anthony Sparks and producing director and episode director Cheryl Dunye discussed the series with the Festival’s co-creative director, Matt Zoller Seitz.

Following, NBC’s The Good Place actor William Jackson Harper and Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland had a close-up conversation about the beloved series following a screening of the Season 4 finale episode. During the panel, William and Melanie touched on how this comedy series, centered on questions of ethics and philosophy, has served as a source of encouragement for William through the current political landscape: “Playing Chidi has absolutely played into how I move through the world just because I feel like the response from the audience to something that’s so optimistic but snarky at the same time, it’s sort of shifted the way I feel about people. You know, we’re living in kind of a trash time. It’s nice that people are latching onto a bunch of people caring for each other, looking out for each other and doing the best they can. And the fact that that resonates so strongly is really encouraging.”

CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone actress Sanaa Lathan and screenwriter Selwyn Seyfu Hinds sat down with Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland following a screening of the stunning black-and-white episode of the series, “Replay” in the afternoon on Sunday. During their discussion, Selwyn spoke about working on the series with executive producer Jordan Peele: “I knew sort of structurally what I wanted to do. Jordan helped me with the how.”

Next up on Sunday, June 2, Festival attendees, including actor Keegan-Michael Key, enjoyed an exclusive sneak preview screening of the Season 1 finale episode of Cinemax’s fan favorite series, Warrior. Following the screening, Bruce Lee’s daughter and series executive producer Shannon Lee and series creator and executive producer Jonathan Tropper chatted with Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz about the gritty, action-packed crime drama. Lee said: “The thing that I love about this show is that it holds his [my father] energy. He doesn’t have to be in it for it to hold the energy of Bruce Lee and to bring that across. Yes, he came up with the nugget of the idea but in order for the show to be on the screen and you to watch it, so many other people had to be involved in a huge way, and Jonathan is key among them in terms of creating the world. But also the fact that we all held to the energy of it and really had so much care for what it meant to have Bruce Lee’s name be on a show and I’m really grateful for that. He wrote other treatments, just saying.”

The evening closed with a live screening of AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” season five premiere, and cast members Alycia Debnam Carey, Colman Domingo, Jenna Elfman, Austin Amelio and Danay Garcia, and Scott M. Gimple, Executive Producer of the series and Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead Universe joined Matt Zoller Seitz to break down the premiere episode and what is to come this season. Gimple teased: “I will say, there is an exciting animal companion coming up this season, and the person that is their companion thinks that this animal is going to be a star.” 

Actor Keegan-Michael Key at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) OWN’s Queen Sugar actors Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Kofi Siriboe and Rutina Wesley at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screen Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz and OWN’s Queen Sugar actors Rutina Wesley, Dawn-Lyen Gardner and Kofi Siriboe, showrunner and episode producer Anthony Sparks and producing director and episode director Cheryl Dunye at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screen Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz and OWN’s Queen Sugar actors Rutina Wesley, Dawn-Lyen Gardner and Kofi Siriboe, showrunner and episode producer Anthony Sparks and producing director and episode director Cheryl Dunye, and Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

NBC’s The Good Place actor William Jackson Harper at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland, NBC’s The Good Place actor William Jackson Harper and Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland and NBC’s The Good Place actor William Jackson Harper at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone actress Sanaa Lathan at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone screenwriter Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and actress Sanaa Lathan with Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland, Cinemax’s Warrior creator and executive producer Jonathan Tropper and executive producer Shannon Lee, Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz and Festival executive director Raphaela Neihausen at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Actor Keegan-Michael Key and Cinemax’s Warrior executive producer Shannon Lee and creator and executive producer Jonathan Tropper at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz and Cinemax’s Warrior executive producer Shannon Lee and creator and executive producer Jonathan Tropper at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead actors Austin Amelio, Colman Domingo, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Danay Garcia, executive producer of Fear the Walking Dead and Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead Universe, Scott M. Gimple, and Fear the Walking Dead actor Jenna Elfman at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead actors Austin Amelio, Colman Domingo, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Danay Garcia, executive producer of Fear the Walking Dead and Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead Universe, Scott M. Gimple, Fear the Walking Dead actor Jenna Elfman, and Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz, executive producer of Fear the Walking Dead and Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead Universe, Scott M. Gimple, and AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead actors Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo, Jenna Elfman, Austin Amelio and Danay Garcia at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

Split Screens Festival is produced and presented by IFC Center, one of New York’s leading independent cinemas. Collaborating with broadcasters, cable networks and streaming services, the festival highlights great content from a range of platforms to bring together the creative talent behind TV’s most acclaimed shows and sophisticated New York audiences. The 2019 program, celebrating the art and craft of storytelling, puts a spotlight on wide-ranging themes including identity, the mystery of existence itself, dystopian realities and alternate timelines, and invites fans to enjoy screenings and events that transport us into any number of time periods and places, be it a late-1800s South Dakota town or the tensions of New York City at the end of the 1980s. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @SplitScreensTV. 

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM FRIDAY, MAY 31ST AND SATURDAY JUNE 1ST

On Friday, May 31st the Festival hosted a close-up conversation with Pamela Adlon, FX’s Better Things executive producer, writer, director and actress, after a screening of the Season 3 finale of the critically-acclaimed series. During her conversation with Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland, Adlon gave a piece of advice to the audience about dreaming big: “Try to imagine it, because maybe it’ll happen sooner...and maybe do sit-ups every day.” Adlon also went on to discuss how both she and her daughters identify with the character ‘Frankie’ in Better Things: “My kids live in a very non-binary way. It’s fluid. When I was growing up, I was androgynous. Now it’s called fluid, now it’s called non-binary. And my kids are all very comfortable in that world, as are their friends. It makes me very happy that we are able to hold that. It’s like a little Faberge egg.”

Also on Friday, fans enjoyed a live screening of HBO’s highly anticipated Deadwood: The Movie at the SVA Theatre, some dressed in costume. Following a sold out screening, Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz took the stage with Robin Weigert who portrays ‘Calamity Jane’ and director Daniel Minahan, plus actor Ian McShane who plays ‘Al Swearengen’ joined the conversation live via satellite. When asked if she ever thought this day would come, Robin revealed: “I started to think it was going to happen when [creator] David Milch showed me pages of what he was working on and I thought it was too beautiful not to happen, and then it was just a matter of holding onto that faith through many ups and downs.” McShane shocked crowds when he added: “It was a pleasure to take part in this MAYBE final exercise...well look at Al, at the end the old finger is still moving.” When Seitz questioned McShane, reminding him he had previously said this was the last one, McShane clapped back: “I’m f*cking Al Swearengen, I lie a lot.”

On Saturday, June 1, Christopher Abbott sat down with Seitz to discuss his starring role in Hulu’s new hit series Catch-22. On working with Grant Heslov, George Clooney and Ellen Kuras, Abbott jokingly said their acting notes for him were: “Better. More. Slower. Faster.” He added: “The whole thing was cross-boarded so on any given day I was shooting multiple scenes from multiple episodes with all the different directors...that in itself was challenging. All three of them were there all the time, so you had the individual experience of working with each director and all of them, for lack of going too deep, were great, but at a certain point it just became a fever dream. Whoever was in front of me giving notes, I would nod my head, give a thumbs up and go do it. It felt insane.”

Following, Sam Esmail, the writer-director who has produced two TV series in a similar vein, USA’s Golden Globe® award-winning hacker drama Mr. Robot and Amazon’s military conspiracy thriller Homecoming, stopped by the festival to take the audience on a tour of the paranoid thriller genre, from the distant past through the present day, and its influence on his own work. He surprised Mr. Robot fans with exclusive news that his wife, actress Emmy Rossum (Shameless), who was in the audience, will make a cameo appearance in the upcoming final season. In discussing how today’s environment is the richest for paranoid thrillers since the ‘70s, Esmail said: “Trump blows Nixon out of the water. Trump is ten times worse than Nixon and we can’t bring him down…We don’t even have to catch him on tape, he just tweets out admission after admission and it doesn’t seem to matter, and there weirdly feels a little more of a hopelessness.”

  

FX’s Better Things executive producer, writer, director and actress Pamela Adlon at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Split Screens Festival executive director Raphaela Neihausen, FX’s Better Things executive producer, writer, director and actress Pamela Adlon and Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie actress Robin Weigert at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival at the SVA Theatre in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Simon Luethi

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz, and HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie director Daniel Minahan and actress Robin Weigert at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival at the SVA Theatre in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Simon Luethi

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz and HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie actress Robin Weigert, director Daniel Minahan and actor Ian McShane via satellite at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival at the SVA Theatre in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Simon Luethi

Hulu’s Catch 22 actor Christopher Abbott at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland and executive director Raphaela Neihausen, Hulu’s Catch 22 actor Christopher Abbott and Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz and Hulu’s Catch 22 actor Christopher Abbott at the third annual Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

USA’s Mr. Robot and Amazon’s Homecoming creator, writer, director, producer Sam Esmail at the third annual Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland, USA’s Mr. Robot and Amazon’s Homecoming creator, writer, director, producer Sam Esmail and Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz at the third annual Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

USA’s Mr. Robot and Amazon’s Homecoming creator, writer, director, producer Sam Esmail and Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz at the third annual Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

PHOTOS: IFC Center's 3rd Annual Split Screens Festival Continues with PAMELA ADLON, Cast from HBO's DEADWOOD: THE MOVIE, CHRISTOPHER ABBOTT, MR.ROBOT & HOMECOMING's SAM ESMAIL, EMMY ROSSUM & More!

IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival continued on Friday, May 31a with a close-up conversation with Pamela Adlon, FX’s Better Things executive producer, writer, director and actress, after a screening of the Season 3 finale of the critically-acclaimed series. During her conversation with Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland, Adlon gave a piece of advice to the audience about dreaming big: “Try to imagine it, because maybe it’ll happen sooner...and maybe do sit-ups every day.” Adlon also went on to discuss how both she and her daughters identify with the character ‘Frankie’ in Better Things: “My kids live in a very non-binary way. It’s fluid. When I was growing up, I was androgynous. Now it’s called fluid, now it’s called non-binary. And my kids are all very comfortable in that world, as are their friends. It makes me very happy that we are able to hold that. It’s like a little Faberge egg.”

Also on Friday, fans enjoyed a live screening of HBO’s highly anticipated Deadwood: The Movie at the SVA Theatre, some dressed in costume. Following a sold out screening, Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz took the stage with Robin Weigert who portrays ‘Calamity Jane’ and director Daniel Minahan, plus actor Ian McShane who plays ‘Al Swearengen’ joined the conversation live via satellite. When asked if she ever thought this day would come, Robin revealed: “I started to think it was going to happen when [creator] David Milch showed me pages of what he was working on and I thought it was too beautiful not to happen, and then it was just a matter of holding onto that faith through many ups and downs.” McShane shocked crowds when he added: “It was a pleasure to take part in this MAYBE final exercise...well look at Al, at the end the old finger is still moving.” When Seitz questioned McShane, reminding him he had previously said this was the last one, McShane clapped back: “I’m f*cking Al Swearengen, I lie a lot.”

On Saturday, June 1, Christopher Abbott sat down with Seitz to discuss his starring role in Hulu’s new hit series Catch-22. On working with Grant Heslov, George Clooney and Ellen Kuras, Abbott jokingly said their acting notes for him were: “Better. More. Slower. Faster.” He added: “The whole thing was cross-boarded so on any given day I was shooting multiple scenes from multiple episodes with all the different directors...that in itself was challenging. All three of them were there all the time, so you had the individual experience of working with each director and all of them, for lack of going too deep, were great, but at a certain point it just became a fever dream. Whoever was in front of me giving notes, I would nod my head, give a thumbs up and go do it. It felt insane.”

Following, Sam Esmail, the writer-director who has produced two TV series in a similar vein, USA’s Golden Globe® award-winning hacker drama Mr. Robot and Amazon’s military conspiracy thriller Homecoming, stopped by the festival to take the audience on a tour of the paranoid thriller genre, from the distant past through the present day, and its influence on his own work. He surprised Mr. Robot fans with exclusive news that his wife, actress Emmy Rossum (Shameless), who was in the audience, will make a cameo appearance in the upcoming final season. In discussing how today’s environment is the richest for paranoid thrillers since the ‘70s, Esmail said: “Trump blows Nixon out of the water. Trump is ten times worse than Nixon and we can’t bring him down…We don’t even have to catch him on tape, he just tweets out admission after admission and it doesn’t seem to matter, and there weirdly feels a little more of a hopelessness.”

  

FX’s Better Things executive producer, writer, director and actress Pamela Adlon at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Split Screens Festival executive director Raphaela Neihausen, FX’s Better Things executive producer, writer, director and actress Pamela Adlon and Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie actress Robin Weigert at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival at the SVA Theatre in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Simon Luethi

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz, and HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie director Daniel Minahan and actress Robin Weigert at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival at the SVA Theatre in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Simon Luethi

HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie director Daniel Minahan and actress Robin Weigert at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival at the SVA Theatre in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Simon Luethi

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz and HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie actress Robin Weigert, director Daniel Minahan and actor Ian McShane via satellite at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival at the SVA Theatre in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Simon Luethi

Hulu’s Catch 22 actor Christopher Abbott at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland and executive director Raphaela Neihausen, Hulu’s Catch 22 actor Christopher Abbott and Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz and Hulu’s Catch 22 actor Christopher Abbott at the third annual Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

USA’s Mr. Robot and Amazon’s Homecoming creator, writer, director, producer Sam Esmail at the third annual Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland, USA’s Mr. Robot and Amazon’s Homecoming creator, writer, director, producer Sam Esmail and Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz at the third annual Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

USA’s Mr. Robot and Amazon’s Homecoming creator, writer, director, producer Sam Esmail and Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz at the third annual Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Carlos Sanfer

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland, Soraya McDonald of The Undefeated, Sonia Saraiya of Vanity Fair, Caroline Framke of Variety, politics and pop culture critic Delia Harrington, Jamie Velez, actress and writer Emma Potter and actor Connor Ratliff at the (S)heroes: Women of Action! Panel at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

(L-R) Split Screens Festival co-creative director Matt Zoller Seitz, James Poniewozik of The New York Times, Soraya McDonald of The Undefeated, Sonia Saraiya of Vanity Fair, Caroline Framke of Variety and Split Screens Festival co-creative director Melanie McFarland at the Skip Credits: Critics on Storytelling in the Age of Streaming Panel at IFC Center’s third annual Split Screens Festival in New York.

Photo credit: IFC Center/Lou Aguilar

Split Screens Festival is produced and presented by IFC Center, one of New York’s leading independent cinemas. Collaborating with broadcasters, cable networks and streaming services, the festival highlights great content from a range of platforms to bring together the creative talent behind TV’s most acclaimed shows and sophisticated New York audiences. The 2019 program, celebrating the art and craft of storytelling, puts a spotlight on wide-ranging themes including identity, the mystery of existence itself, dystopian realities and alternate timelines, and invites fans to enjoy screenings and events that transport us into any number of time periods and places, be it a late-1800s South Dakota town or the tensions of New York City at the end of the 1980s. Tickets to the public are on sale (www.splitscreensfestival.com) for exclusive screenings and compelling panel conversations featuring the biggest and boldest names in scripted content, both in front of and behind the camera. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @SplitScreensTV.

UPDATED SLATE FOR SPLIT SCREENS TV FESTIVAL | 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Fear the Walking Dead' Events & Talent Added - And More!

UPDATED SCHEDULE:

NYC’S RENOWNED IFC CENTER PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE ART OF TELEVISION WITH THE

2019 SPLIT SCREENS FESTIVAL LAUNCHING NEXT WEEK: MAY 29 – JUNE 3

Celebration for TV Obsessives to Feature Close-Up Conversations with

Pamela Adlon (FX’s Better Things), Christopher Abbott (Hulu’s Catch-22), Sam Esmail (Amazon’s Homecoming, USA’s Mr. Robot), William Jackson Harper (NBC’s The Good Place) and Sanaa Lathan (CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone); Plus (S)heroes: Women of Action Fan Panel; and a Look at Storytelling in the Age of Streaming Led By Noted TV Critics and Festival Co-Creative Directors, Vulture’s Matt Zoller Seitz and Salon’s Melanie McFarland

Highlights Include Fan-Focused Live Watches of Deadwood: The Movie with Stars

Robin Weigert and Ian McShane; and the Season 5 Premiere of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead -- Cast Members Jenna Elfman, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia and Austin Amelio To Be Joined By Scott M. Gimple, Executive Producer and Chief Content Officer of the Walking Dead Universe

Plus Advance Screenings and Industry Insider Panels Showcasing Russian Doll,

When They See Us, Instinct, Queen Sugar, Warrior, The Handmaid’s Tale

New York, May 22, 2019 - IFC Center, home to DOC NYC -- the largest documentary festival in the US -- unveiled its final lineup for the third annual Split Screens TV Festival taking place Wednesday, May 29 through Monday, June 3, 2019, at NYC’s IFC Center. The 2019 program, celebrating the art and craft of storytelling, puts a spotlight on wide-ranging themes including identity, the mystery of existence itself, dystopian realities and alternate timelines, and invites fans to enjoy screenings and events that transport us into any number of time periods and places, be it a late-1800s South Dakota town or the tensions of New York City at the end of the 1980s.

Tickets to the public are on sale (www.splitscreensfestival.com) for exclusive screenings and compelling panel conversations featuring the biggest and boldest names in scripted content, both in front of and behind the camera. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @SplitScreensTV.

For the third edition of the event, notable Salon TV critic Melanie McFarland was named Co-Creative Director, joining founding Co-Creative Director Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Magazine’s TV critic and best-selling author. The festival will once again be anchored by four signature pillars: PREMIERES, an opportunity for audiences to be among the first to screen anticipated season premieres and finales; CLOSE-UP, conversations with celebrated actors and creatives; TV TALK, an exploration of content’s cultural impact through the lens of superfans, pop culture writers and experts; and REWIND, a closer look at an iconic episode of TV; plus a number of SPECIAL EVENTS.

Festival highlights include: close-up conversations with Pamela Adlon, executive producer, writer, director and star of FX’s Better Things; William Jackson Harper, star of the philosophy-themed NBC comedy The Good Place; Christopher Abbott, star of Hulu’s critically acclaimed Catch-22; a deep dive into the art of the paranoid thriller with Sam Esmail, creator of USA’s Mr. Robot and director of Amazon’s Homecoming, with a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut; and Leslye Headland, co-creator and co-executive producer of Netflix’s hit series Russian Doll, who will anchor a panel of creative professionals  who helped bring the world of Russian Doll to life.

Festival attendees will also enjoy Deadwood: The Movie, a chance to experience the epic conclusion of HBO’s legendary Western series on the big screen along with a half-hour Deadwood companion doc written by Matt Zoller Seitz, followed by a discussion with stars Robin Weigert (on stage) and Ian McShane (live via satellite); a closer look into a breakout episode from season one of The Twilight Zone, CBS All Access’ re-imagining of the classic anthology series (followed by a conversation with actress Sanaa Lathan and screenwriter Selwyn Seyfu Hinds); an advance screening of the season 3 premiere of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale; a sneak preview of When They See Us, Ava DuVernay’s highly anticipated Central Park 5 Netflix miniseries;  the season 1 finale of Cinemax’s Warrior; a live-watch of the fifth season premiere of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead and panel featuring actors Jenna Elfman, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia and Austin Amelio, along with Exec Producer Scott M. Gimple, and Chief Content Officer of the Walking Dead Universe; an advance screening of the season 2 premiere of CBS’s Instinct with co-stars Alan Cumming & Bojana Novakovic; a conversation with key cast and creative talent of OWN’s Queen Sugar, following an advance screening of the season 4 premiere;  (S)heroes: Women of Action!, a fan appreciation panel of influential female characters; and a conversation with noted TV critics about how the age of streaming has transformed the craft of storytelling.

Additionally, the Split Screens Festival will honor pioneering writer, producer, director and advocate Janet Mock with the 2019 Vanguard Award. David Chase was the first Vanguard honoree in 2017, followed by Sandra Oh in 2018 - an award honoring those who have significantly advanced the evolution of TV storytelling. Mock made history as the first trans woman of color to write and direct an episode of television with the landmark script for Love Is the Message from FX’s critically-acclaimed Pose, which will be screened that evening in her honor.

Festival screenings and panel discussions will be hosted and moderated by one or both of Split Screens Co-Creative Directors Matt Zoller Seitz and Melanie McFarland, consummate TV fans themselves who know that audiences can't get enough of good television content. Seitz is Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. McFarland is Salon’s TV critic and an executive board member of the Television Critics Association who has lent her expert commentary to a variety of media outlets, including CNN, NPR, American Public Media, and the BBC.

Said Seitz: “At a time when the old boundaries between cinema and television have fallen and everything has become ‘content,’ yet stories of every kind of length and tone and genre are still using cinematic and literary language, a festival of this kind becomes more important than ever. Split Screens is a place where the point is to look not just at what kinds of stories are being told, but how they are told, by whom, and to what purpose.”

-more-

McFarland added: “For the third annual Split Screens, we’re celebrating the medium’s ever-widening variety of storytelling by bringing aspects of history, humanity and speculative fiction to audiences. This line-up is designed to appeal to students of the creative process and series fans alike, and it brings me great pleasure to take part in fostering rich conversations around so many incredible programs.”

Split Screens Festival is produced and presented by IFC Center, one of New York’s leading independent cinemas, and is organized by the core team of its successful DOC NYC documentary film festival, including Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen, Director of Development Deborah Rudolph and Operations Director Dana Krieger. Collaborating with broadcasters, cable networks and streaming services, the festival will highlight great content from a range of platforms to bring together the creative talent behind TV’s most acclaimed shows and sophisticated New York audiences.

Split Screens Festival is made possible by Event Sponsors FX and National Geographic; Friends of the Festival include Essentia, PTEX and Wheelhouse Creative.

Venue and Ticket information:

• All festival events take place at IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. (at West 3rd St), with the exception of Deadwood: The Movie on May 31, which screens at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd St.
• Tickets for all events are available online at splitscreensfestival.com or at the IFC Center box office, open daily 10:30am-10:00pm. Same-day tickets for Deadwood: The Movie will also be available at the SVA Theatre box office starting at 6:30pm on May 31.
• Tickets for the TV Talk events on June 1 are $12 general admission / $9 IFC Center members
• Tickets for all other festival events are $17 general admission / $14 IFC Center members
• A discounted 3-ticket pack is available for $40/$35 IFC Center members.

SCHEDULE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 29

6:45 PM - Inside Russian Doll: A Guided Tour of Time, Space, Death, and Resurrection (Netflix) - CLOSE-UP

In attendance: Co-creator and co-executive producer Leslye Headland, production designer Michael Bricker, hair department head Marcel Dagenais, editor, Todd Downing, costume designer Jenn Rogien, director of photography Chris Teague and editor Laura Weinberg

From the instant that Russian Doll’s hard-partying heroine, Nadia (Natasha Lyonne), ends her 36th birthday by dying a sudden, shocking death and being instantly resurrected, you know you’ve entered an East Village Twilight Zone where the established rules of existence have been replaced by a series of question marks. A time-loop narrative in the spirit of Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow, the eight-episode series unfurls a complex cosmology, governed by rules that can only be divined by living (and dying) day after day after day.

Series co-creator and co-executive producer Leslye Headland will anchor a panel of creative professionals who helped bring the world of Russian Doll to life. Every facet of this unique show will be discussed in detail, from the use of color to tell us whose timeline we’re in, to the way the history of the East Village figures in the plot, to the influence of three classic films: All That Jazz, The Shining and Defending Your Life.

Russian Doll is produced by Universal Television in association with Jax Media, Paper Kite Productions, 3 Arts Entertainment, Shoot to Midnight, Avenue A.

8:30 PM - When They See Us (Netflix) - PREMIERE

Special guests to be announced.

Based on a true story that gripped the country, When They See Us is a sweeping drama chronicling the notorious case of the Central Park Five--Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise--five teenagers of color from Harlem who were convicted of a rape they did not commit. Beginning in the spring of 1989, when the teenagers were first questioned about the incident, Netflix’s four-part limited series spans 25 years, highlighting their exoneration in 2002 and the settlement reached with the city of New York in 2014.

Split Screens is proud to present a special sneak preview of the first two parts of When They See Us, which was created by Ava DuVernay, who also co-wrote and directed all four parts of the series. The phenomenal ensemble cast includes Michael K. Williams, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, Niecy Nash, Blair Underwood, Christopher Jackson, Joshua Jackson, Omar J. Dorsey, Adepero Oduye, Famke Janssen, Aurora Perrineau, William Sadler, Jharrel Jerome, Jovan Adepo, Aunjanue Ellis, Kylie Bunbury, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Storm Reid, Dascha Polanco, Chris Chalk, Freddy Miyares, Justin Cunningham, Ethan Herisse, Caleel Harris, Marquis Rodriguez, and Asante Blackk.

THURSDAY, MAY 30

7:45 PM - Instinct (CBS) - PREMIERE

In attendance: Actor Alan Cumming, actress Bojana Novakovic and executive producer Michael Rauch

Join the stars and executive producer for an advance screening of the Season 2 premiere. Instinct stars Alan Cumming as Dylan Reinhart, a former CIA operative, who is currently an Abnormal Behavior professor, and author turned police consultant, who gets partnered with homicide Detective Lizzie Needham, played by Bojana Novakovic. Their approaches to criminal behavior, and instincts in solving murders, are diametrically opposed, with Dylan set on finding killers to understand why they killed, and Lizzie set on finding killers because they, well, killed.  

After having been put on leave by the NYPD, Season 2 begins with Dylan reinstated to the homicide squad just in time to join Lizzie when a body is found in Central Park. With Dylan and Lizzie back together, they realize they need to learn to trust the other’s instincts in order to solve the case.

A smart and surprising take on the police procedural, Instinct also offers a quietly groundbreaking character in Cumming’s Dylan Reinhart: the first openly gay lead in a broadcast Network drama. But in Instinct Dylan’s sexuality is perhaps the fifth most interesting thing about him.

Produced by CBS Television Studios.

FRIDAY, MAY 31

6:30 PM - Better Things: How Pamela Adlon Makes Life Into Art (FX) - CLOSE-UP

In attendance: Executive producer, writer, director and actress Pamela Adlon

Pamela Adlon’s voice is as likely to get her recognized in public as her face. Between 1997 and 2010 she spoke for King of the Hill’s favorite son “Bobby,” while premium cable viewers loved her as the straight-shooting “Marcy Runkle” on Californication, which ran for seven seasons on Showtime.

Now, the Emmy®-award winning actress, writer, producer and director has emerged as one of television’s most distinguished auteurs via Better Things, her Peabody Award winning series on FX. Adlon frequently describes Better Things as a handmade show, owing to her practice of mining her own life’s experiences to inform the adventures of her character “Sam Fox,” Sam’s daughters “Max,” “Frankie” and “Duke,” and mother “Phil.” No moment is too intimate for Adlon, who breaks her heart wide open in every episode.

In this candid conversation, we’ll take a stroll through Adlon’s painstakingly personal approach to her cinematically-complex series, and seasons of stories enriched by conversations about power, inclusion and all the shifts a woman’s identity undergoes at various stages in her life.

7:15 PM - Deadwood: The Movie (HBO) - SPECIAL EVENT

*Location: SVA Theatre - 333 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

In attendance: Actress Robin Weigert and live via satellite actor Ian McShane

When David Milch’s Western Deadwood debuted on HBO in 2004, it earned solid ratings and comparisons to both The Sopranos (which it followed on the network’s schedule) and Shakespeare. Its sudden cancellation in 2006, three seasons into what Milch hoped would be at least a four-season run, shocked the show’s cast and crew as well as its fans. Deadwood: The Movie reunites the story’s major players for a two-hour film set ten years after the end of the last episode. The eponymous one-time former camp, now a thriving town, celebrates South Dakota’s induction into the United States, while monumental life events happen publicly and often simultaneously, in classic Deadwood fashion.

Join hundreds of Deadwood fans at the SVA Theatre in Chelsea as we watch Deadwood: The Movie during its broadcast on a big screen. The film will be preceded by “A Lie Agreed Upon: David Milch’s Deadwood,” a half-hour documentary about the series, written by Split Screens Co-Creative Director Matt Zoller Seitz, edited by Steven Santos, and narrated by Supernatural star Jim Beaver, who played Whitney Ellsworth on the show for three seasons. The movie will be followed by a discussion with stars Robin Weigert and via live video Ian McShane.

SATURDAY, JUNE 1

11:30 AM - (S)heroes: Women of Action! - TV TALK

In attendance: Presenters Jessica Aldrich, Delia Harrington, Emmy Potter, Connor Ratliff, Jamie Velez and noted critics Caroline Framke, Soraya McDonald and Sonia Saraiya

Women have been holding their own in the action front on TV since Annie Oakley fronted a western in the 1950s. And as battles for equality and recognition evolved over the decades, the power these characters wield and the battles they fight have come to symbolize more than just plot points. They give us patterns to follow to make sexist workplaces bearable, to navigate the pressures of family life, to process trauma and light the way through life’s darker moments.

Split Screens is delighted to present this passionate, fan-driven appreciation of television’s most inspirational, take-charge women, with devotees offering presentations on subjects ranging from classic heavies such as Sydney Bristow of Alias and Lana Kane of Archer to the magical Julia Wicker of The Magicians and Anya, the unsung demon doll of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Roll up your sleeves and strap in for this high-spirited celebration of sheroes.

2:00 PM - Skip Credits: Critics on Storytelling In the Age of Streaming - TV TALK

In attendance: Critics Caroline Framke (Variety), Soraya McDonald (The Undefeated), James Poniewozik (The New York Times) and Sonia Saraiya (Vanity Fair)

In the era of streaming TV platforms, shows are increasingly designed so that every season functions as a self-contained unit, using storytelling hooks to fuse every hour (or half-hour) into a single, self-contained chunk that drops all at once and gets binge-watched in days or less. This is the opposite of how the medium used to tell stories: they called TV “episodic” for a reason, and until fairly recently, shows that dared to fuse more than three episodes together to make an ongoing linear narrative were just asking to be abandoned by viewers. Some critically acclaimed but low-rated serialized shows, including the original Twin Peaks, Crime Story, and The Wire, found that out the hard way.

How has streaming technology changed TV storytelling at the level of narrative and character? What has been lost, and what has been gained? A panel of veteran critics, moderated by Split Screens Co-Creative Directors Melanie McFarland and Matt Zoller Seitz, will ponder the question in a self-contained, hour-long program that will wrap things up neatly, without closing credits, though we reserve the right to end with a cool song.

3:30 PM - That’s Some Catch: Christopher Abbott in Catch-22 (Hulu) - CLOSE-UP

In attendance: Actor Christopher Abbott

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you." Revisit the premiere episode of Hulu’s epic black comedy miniseries adapted from Joseph Heller's 1961 classic anti-war novel, followed by an in-depth conversation with star Christopher Abbott. Abbott (Girls, James White) plays John "Yo-Yo" Yossarian, a WWII bombardier who has a sense of the absurd and his own role in it, but would rather escape combat and live to a ripe old age than savor the war zone's ironies. He's trapped by the conundrum of the title, which holds that anyone requesting mental evaluation in order to be declared insane and relieved of combat duty can't actually be crazy, because only a rational person would make such a request.  

This Catch-22 reaffirms the timelessness of Heller's vision and is anchored by an alternately sardonic and touching performance by Abbott as an extraordinary ordinary man who's fighting as hard as he can against bureaucratic forces that can twist even the nimblest mind into pretzels. The six-part limited series is executive produced by Oscar-winning actor-filmmaker George Clooney (who costars as Scheisskopf, a dunderhead who keeps failing upward), Oscar-winning filmmaker Grant Heslov, series writers Luke Davies and David Michôd, and Ellen Kuras, who, along with Clooney and Heslov, also directed.

Hulu's Catch-22 is produced by Paramount Television, Anonymous Content and Smokehouse Pictures.

5:30 PM - Vanguard Award: Janet Mock - SPECIAL EVENT

Free screening of Love Is the Message from season 1 of FX’s Pose

Due to an unforeseen Pose schedule change, Janet Mock will be unable to attend as originally announced.

Free screening of the acclaimed Love Is the Message episode of FX’s Pose, written and directed by Janet Mock, recipient of the 2019 Split Screens Festival’s Vanguard Award, with a taped video introduction by Mock. Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first served basis at the IFC Center box office, starting at 4:30 pm on Saturday, June 1.

Split Screens is proud to honor pioneering writer, producer, director and advocate Janet Mock with the 2019 Vanguard Award.A New York Times bestselling author, Mock’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Marie Claire, where she's a contributing editor. Time named her one of its 100 Most Influential people in the world, she was featured on Ebony’s Power 100 list, and the PEN Center USA honored her with an Award of Honor during their 2017 Literary Awards. She made history as the first trans woman of color to write and direct an episode of television with the landmark script for Love Is the Message.

Season two of Pose will premiere June 11^th.

8:00 PM - Is it Safe? Sam Esmail on Mr. Robot, Homecoming and the Paranoid Thriller - CLOSE-UP

In attendance: Sam Esmail - Event includes a screening of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut

No movie genre better expresses the creeping dread of modern life than the paranoid thriller, a mode where the heroes are marginalized, truth is elusive, and justice is deferred or denied. The genre arose in the chaos of the 1960s and ’70s, and thrived for a period of about fifteen years, producing such classics as Blow-Up, Klute, The Parallax View, The Conversation, Marathon Man, Three Days of the Condor, All the President’s Men, and Blow-Out.

One of its most devoted disciples is Sam Esmail, a writer-director who has produced two TV series in a similar vein, USA’s Golden Globe® award winning hacker drama Mr. Robot and Amazon’s military conspiracy thriller Homecoming (adapted from the hit podcast). In “Is it Safe?”—named after the mysterious phrase repeated by the villain of Marathon Man—Esmail takes the Split Screens audience on a tour of the genre, from the distant past through the present day, and its influence on his own work, concluding with a 35mm screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 masterwork, the ultra-paranoid Eyes Wide Shut.

SUNDAY, JUNE 2

12:30 PM - Queen Sugar (OWN) - PREMIERE

In attendance: Actors Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Kofi Siriboe, and Rutina Wesley, showrunner and episode writer Anthony Sparks, and producing director and episode director Cheryl Dunye

Split Screens is proud to screen the premiere episode of season four of Queen Sugar, followed by a discussion with key cast-members, creators, and the showrunner. Created by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay and focusing on a multi-generational, African-American family, Queen Sugar follows the Bordelon siblings as they fight to preserve their father’s legacy and deal with the everyday drama and joys of life. As season four picks up, Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) continues to battle the Landry family while also trying to ensure Micah’s (Nicholas Ashe) safety and future. Nova (Rutina Wesley) publishes her memoir and is unnerved to encounter significant people from her past while on book tour. Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) adjusts to co-parenting with his ex-fiancé Darla (Bianca Lawson) after learning he is not the biological father of his son, Blue (Ethan Hutchison), and is encouraged by an old friend to create opportunities for formerly incarcerated men.

Executive produced by Ava DuVernay, Oprah Winfrey, Paul Garnes and Anthony Sparks, who also serves as showrunner,  the series is helmed by an entirely female directorial team, led this season by producing director Cheryl Dunye. 

Queen Sugar is produced for OWN by Forward Movement and Harpo Films in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television.

2:30 PM - The Good Place: A Conversation with William Jackson Harper (NBC) - CLOSE-UP

In attendance: Actor William Jackson Harper

In what universe does a comedy centered upon questions of ethics and philosophy make it onto a major broadcast network, let alone last for four seasons? This one, luckily for us. But The Good Place leans much deeper into queries of what it means to be good and the nature of grace than it trades in liberal arts nerdiness. Well, there’s that, and its protagonists’ leaps across realities as inter-dimensional fugitives pursued by an assortment of demons and Maya Rudolph’s all-powerful cosmic judge.

Even more unlikely is the budding romance between Kristen Bell’s Eleanor Shellstrop, once a selfish, proudly ignorant slob, and William Jackson Harper’s professor of moral philosophy Chidi Anagonye, whose inflexibility and indecisiveness tortured everyone around him.

Harper joins Split Screens to walk us through season 3’s game-changing finale and discuss the creative challenges of a performance which, at this point in the series, asks him to rebuild his character from square 1. And maybe he’ll even provide us some insight to the thesis of Chidi’s greatest work, “What We Owe to Each Other.”

The Good Place is produced by Universal Television in association with 3 Arts Entertainment and Fremulon.

4:00 PM - The Twilight Zone (CBS All Access) - REWIND

In attendance: Actress Sanaa Lathan and screenwriter Selwyn Seyfu Hinds

Created by Rod Serling, the classic anthology series The Twilight Zone never shied away from political and social themes. CBS All Access’ re-imagining of the show, executive produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us) and Simon Kinberg (X-Men), continues the tradition in a distinctly contemporary voice. One of the highlights from its first season is “Replay,” an ominous, unforgettable thriller about police brutality and institutional racism.

Star Sanaa Lathan (The Affair, Native Son) and “Replay” screenwriter Selwyn Seyfu Hinds join us for a closer look into this chilling episode, centered around Nina (Lathan), a mother who discovers her old camcorder can rewind time during a trip with her college-bound son Dorian (Damson Idris of Snowfall). Their journey turns nightmarish when they are continually targeted by Officer Lasky (Glenn Fleshler).

Now available to watch in stunning black-and-white, “Replay” turns a persistent modern American tragedy into a parable that also evokes elements of the classic series.

6:00 PM - Warrior (Cinemax) - PREMIERE

In attendance: Executive producer Shannon Lee, and creator and executive producer Jonathan Tropper

Nearly 50 years after Bruce Lee first wrote a concept for a TV series, Lee’s daughter Shannon, with the help of creator and executive producer Jonathan Tropper (Banshee), has  brought the martial arts legend’s vision to life in the form of Cinemax’s Warrior, a gritty, action-packed crime drama set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century.

Following an exclusive sneak preview screening of the Season 1 finale, Tropper and Lee will join us live to walk the audience through their process of bringing Bruce Lee’s story to life. They’ll reveal the careful efforts they made to honor his iconic vision, from correctly interpreting the strained politics of the era to rendering the intricate, highly athletic martial arts choreography believably – and brutally.

Warrior is produced for Cinemax by Perfect Storm Entertainment, Tropper Ink Productions and Bruce Lee Entertainment.

8:15 PM - Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Premiere (AMC) - SPECIAL EVENT

In attendance: Actors Jenna Elfman, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia and Austin Amelio, and Scott M. Gimple, Executive Producer of Fear the Walking Dead and Chief Content Officer of the Walking Dead Universe

Join us for a live screening of the season 5 premiere, followed by a conversation with the cast and executive producer.

As AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead enters Season 5, with a powerful ensemble including Lennie James, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia, Garret Dillahunt, Maggie Grace, Jenna Elfman, Alexa Nisenson, Austin Amelio, Ruben Blades and Karen David, its core characters’ mission is clear: locate survivors and help make what’s left of the world a slightly better place. With dogged determination, Morgan Jones (James) leads the group with a philosophy rooted in benevolence, community and hope. Each character believes that helping others will allow them to make up for the wrongs of their pasts. But their mission of helping others will be put to the ultimate test when the group finds themselves in uncharted territory, one which will force them to face their fears and perhaps discover an entirely new way to live.

Fear the Walking Dead is produced by AMC Studios.

MONDAY, JUNE 3

7:00 PM - The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) - PREMIERE

Join us for an exclusive sneak preview presentation of the highly-anticipated third season premiere of the Emmy® and Golden Globe Award®-winning drama.

A world decimated by endless conflict, environmental disaster and declining birth rates. A government that has more control over what a woman can do with her body than she does. Some say the fictional world Gilead has a little too much in common with America in 2019, even though author Margaret Atwood introduced it in 1985.

If that is so, perhaps Bruce Miller’s latest season of The Handmaid’s Tale offers a ray of hope.

In Season 3 Elisabeth Moss’ heroic June – or Offred, as she’s known to her totalitarian captors – steps up her efforts to resist in a world bent on breaking her will. And as rebellion begins to take shape around her, June’s determination is buoyed by a new twist on a familiar prayer: “Blessed be the fight.”

Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale has its streaming premiere on Hulu June 5. The Handmaid’s Tale is produced by MGM Television.