# Alza, NYC's first microdrama festival, tests vertical video

> The Verge went to Alza, New York's first vertical-video festival, and found big-screen microdramas, AI worries and a hopeful industry.

By Subhajit | 2026-10-22 | Videos | Savvy VibeZ
Web page: https://savvyvibez.com/post/alza-nyc-s-first-microdrama-festival-tests-vertical-video

New York City held its first festival devoted to microdramas and vertical video last weekend, and The Verge's report from the event is a sceptical one. Alza, which ran October 16th to 18th, was billed as a showcase for "the creativity, innovation, and growing cultural impact of stories made for the vertical screen," according to The Verge.

## Phone-sized stories on a cinema screen

The Verge says Alza was founded by Pete Torres, a former chief operating officer of the Tribeca Festival, and mixed film and microdrama premieres with industry panels. The reporter watched screenings at an AMC theater in Manhattan, including a vertical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice directed by Jerry Bradford and a feature called Billionaire's Broken Vow starring Eric Roberts.

The writer found the full-length features awkward on a big screen, citing jarring jump cuts and abrupt soundtrack changes that recall how such films are cut into short episodes for microdrama apps. Shorter formats, such as the romantasy horror series Blood Surfer and a collection of videos by disability rights activist Lachi, worked better, the report says.

The Verge also notes that platforms including Instagram and Vurt have been rolling out smart-TV apps built for vertical video, and that streamers such as Disney Plus, Netflix and HBO Max have experimented with feeds of vertical clips.

## Who is watching

None of the screenings were packed, The Verge says, but some audience members, many of them middle-aged women, laughed and gasped through the romance-led dramas. That fits the pitch from GammaTime, the microdrama platform founded by former Miramax chief executive Bill Block. Block and the platform's head of development, Amy Sullivan, told The Verge their library is designed for different moods across the day, from easy watches and rom-coms to spicier titles for late evening.

Block described daytime television viewers as a key target, saying they now watch on their phones. "This is the new daytime, the new 5-6PM, and the new 10PM plus," he said, according to the report.

## The AI question

The most pointed criticism came from Salvador Paskowitz, who co-wrote The Age of Adaline and won Alza's best director award for his 90-minute comedy Layover. He told The Verge that early microdrama companies had "gone so crazy with AI" that he likened them to cruise ships that have run aground, and he said Layover was made without generative AI.

The Verge's own verdict is that while some projects used AI elements, most starred human actors who were proud of their work. Even so, the reporter writes that the cheesiness, modest production values and formulaic stories do not yet make the genre ready for a red carpet. That is the outlet's opinion, not an established fact, and the festival's organisers and attendees clearly see the format's future differently.

Microdramas are already a multibillion-dollar business, the report says, which helps explain why festivals, studios and streamers are now paying attention. Whether audiences will follow them from the phone to the cinema seat is still an open question.

Picture credit: ALZA Festival (logo, artwork). Design: Savvy VibeZ