ATX TV Fest Shifts Schedule In Response to National Crisis
Streaming festival still happening, with rescheduled panels
By Richard Whittaker, 10:30AM, Fri. Jun. 5, 2020
The ATX Television Festival responded to the coronavirus pandemic by turning into the ATX TV Fest ... From the Couch! Now it's responded to the current national wave of protests against police violence and institutional racism by making some last-minute changes to this weekend's virtual programming.
This morning, the festival (running free and online June 5-7) announced that they've made the decision to pull several events from the streaming celebration of TV. The list includes the cast and crew retrospectives for Cougar Town, Justified, and Scrubs, as well as the preview of the new animated episode of One Day at a Time, and two of the industry panels – the Channel Changers discussion with networks executives, and Torchlighters, dedicated to women mentors in television – have all been removed from the weekend lists.
The organizers went on to say via Twitter that they are working with the attendees to reschedule their panels for later in the summer. Cougar Town, Justified, and Scrubs have all already confirmed that they will be returning in-person for ATX TV Fest 2020.
The rest of the event will continue as planned, including previews and panels for ballroom series Legendary (read our interview with MC Dashawn Wesley and host Leiomy Maldonado here), Showtime's story of abolitionist John Brown, The Good Lord Bird, HBO's upcoming adaptation of Perry Mason, a gathering of the directors of Disney+ smash The Mandalorian, and much more.
You can catch all of the fest for free this weekend. Just register at via www.eventbrite.com.
While the festival is free, the organizers are hoping that online attendees will make contributions to Direct Relief (www.directrelief.org) and/or the Actors Fund (www.actorsfund.org).
You can also catch all our coverage at www.austinchronicle.com/atx-television-festival.
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June 1, 2023
ATX TV Fest 2020, ATX TV Fest ... From the Couch!, Scrubs, Justified, Cougar Town, One Day at a Time
