Tribeca and Epic Games will collaborate to program curated educational experiences for filmmakers in New York City to learn more about the award-winning engine and its offerings.

The whole state-of-the-art Unreal Engine and its suite of 3D creation tools will now be used to provide educational workshops for independent filmmakers, was revealed by Tribeca Enterprises during the 20th edition of the Tribeca Festival. Epic Games’ Unreal Engine is the world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D tool. Creators across games, film, television, architecture, automotive and transportation, advertising, live events, and training and simulation choose Unreal to deliver cutting-edge content, interactive experiences, and immersive virtual worlds.

Unreal Engine has come to prominence as the game engine driving blockbuster video games including Outriders, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Kingdom Hearts III, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Fortnite, and has also been used on major motion pictures and episodic television shows, including The Mandalorian, Westworld, Ford v Ferrari and more. As part of Tribeca’s effort to celebrate the creative intersectionality between game development and filmmaking, during the 2021 Tribeca Festival, presented by AT&T, Tribeca and Epic Games will collaborate to program curated educational experiences for filmmakers in New York City to learn more about the award-winning engine and its offerings.

“We are inspired by the tools and capabilities Unreal Engine offers filmmakers and production studios to help them reimagine storytelling and create stunning imagery in real time,” said Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Festival Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “The technology that has powered so many of today’s most renowned video games is becoming more and more essential to the production of films and television shows, and our mission is to provide a platform for independent filmmakers to learn more about these incredibly powerful tools and resources available to them.”

The Unreal Fellowship and the Educator’s Guide

The program is an extension of Unreal Fellowship launched last year, and will help break down barriers for independent filmmakers to gain first-hand knowledge from Unreal Engine experts and artists on how to use the engine’s suite of development tools to  deliver cutting-edge entertainment, compelling visualizations and immersive virtual worlds.

“Unreal Engine has redefined how storytellers imagine and build stories, and we’re committed to helping filmmakers understand how real-time tools will revolutionize how they produce their projects no matter their budget or team size,” said CTO of Epic Games, Kim Libreri. “Virtual production is the future of filmmaking and our hope is that participants will emerge from the program with a solid understanding of how to use Unreal Engine to fit the needs of their projects.”

Epic Games recently released its Unreal Engine 5 Early Access Educator Guide, a .pdf document for educators, created to answer some of the burning questions that educators have asked Epic Games about the new version. Like all major changes, the release of Unreal Engine 5 Early Access has been met with both excitement and questions from educators, who want to know how and when to start building it into future curriculums.

While new features and technologies have been added, the core architecture and user interface have essentially remained unchanged, making it easy to work it into a curriculum. If you can count on it, you can teach with it—knowing full well that your lessons will remain evergreen in the months and years ahead, says Epic Games.

The free booklet includes tips for moving from UE4 to UE5, guidance on when to start teaching UE5, an overview of the major new features, learning resources, hardware requirements and much more, to take some of the guesswork out of the equation so educators can make a more informed decision a whole lot faster.