Engadget: De Niro says that "10 years ago we wouldn't have needed a TV festival." Do you feel like streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon changed that?

Rosenthal: Certainly when you look at not just Netflix and Amazon but you look at how movies have changed and people are going back and forth between whether it's an HBO or Showtime show and a feature or a VR piece. I mean, Kathryn Bigelow had a VR piece that was at the festival about the rangers of Congo, which was primarily a documentary VR piece. Look at who put together The Night Of that Steven Zaillian, Richard Price and [John] Turturro -- they're all major feature writers and just got nominated for an Emmy for Wizard of Lies, which we do with Bob [De Niro], Michelle Pfeiffer and Barry Levinson, and that was done for HBO. There's no longer any boundaries. It's exciting because as a creator, as a producer, you can have [content] on a platform that is best for whatever that story is that you want to tell.

Engadget: It's clear that Amazon, Netflix and Hulu have changed the way we consume TV. What do you think their long-term effect will be on the industry?

Rosenthal: I don't have a crystal ball, but I am starting a movie with [Martin] Scorsese, De Niro, [Joe] Pesci and [Al] Pacino that I had developed for Paramount 10 years ago, and I'm now doing that for Netflix. You look at this generation, people are screen-agnostic. An audience wants it whenever they want it. I think the thing that, certainly, Amazon and Netflix have done has just [been] binge-watching. One could say that a film festival was the first binge-watching experience. You look at where the industry is going -- you need differentiators and brands to help you find the good that's out there.

Engadget: And competition is always good, right?

Rosenthal: I came into the business when there were four television networks, so look how that has changed. Again, speaking from a point of view as a producer, I have more places I can take the stories I want to tell. There's certainly more room for short content [and] documentaries now than there's ever been. There's a real thirst for content. The big question is, how do you find it? How do you find everything? You may know what you want to watch, but again, there's so many different platforms and how do you find what you want to see? How do you find the best in all of that?

Engadget: Is that where you hope to come in with the Tribeca TV Festival?

Rosenthal: That's what we've certainly been doing with the [film] festival over these past 17 years and what we hope to do with the TV Festival too.

Engadget: What about showing content from apps like Snapchat, which is becoming a hub for unconventional original shows? Do you also see that playing a role in the Tribeca TV Festival?

Rosenthal. Absolutely. We've done a Snapchat competition for the past two years [in the Tribeca Film Festival]. We did a Vine competition [too]. We've always looked at telling stories on any screen as long as they're good, whether it's going to make you laugh, cry or elicit some kind of an emotion.

Engadget: We've seen virtual reality become a big part of the Tribeca Film Festival in the past few years. What is it about the medium that makes you want to include it in the program?

Rosenthal: In terms of VR, certainly the documentaries have been extraordinary. Most people talk about VR, but very few people have really seen good VR content. Very few people have seen stories that you can immerse yourselves in, whether it was something like Chris Milk's piece Clouds Over Sidra and what it was like to live in the largest refugee camp or Kathryn Bigelow's piece about protecting the rangers in the Congo, The Protectors. In VR, you have a chance to walk in somebody else's shoes. Some of the amazing pieces that are done in animation that are coming out of Baobab Studios and Eugene Chung's studio Penrose -- those are ways to completely immerse yourselves into these fantastical worlds. The distribution for VR is still a ways off, and we're still a ways off from seeing a full-length movie in VR. But you want to give these creators an opportunity to express themselves and for an audience to see some of the best that's out there.

Engadget: Do you think we'll ever get to that point, where we can see a full-length VR feature?

Rosenthal: Completely.

Engadget: So what do you think is holding VR back right now?

Rosenthal: The tech's got to become more accessible and the pricing's got to become more accessible. Every day there is something new that is being created, and certainly when you're able to experience it, when you can have multiple people be able to experience VR at the same time, [that] will be exciting.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.