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Anime NYC Founder Peter Tatara Leaves LeftField Media to Join Japan Society

Peter Tatara — vice president of events at LeftField Media and the founder of Anime NYC — announced on Monday that he is leaving LeftField Media and will be starting a new position at the New York-based Japan Society.

Tatara will be the Japan Society's Director of Film, and will oversee JAPAN CUTS, the largest Japanese film festival in North America, as its Festival Director. With Japan Society, Tatara aims to develop programming that both "honors the organization's" history and "speaks to what Japan means today." Tatara previously worked for Reed Exhibitions, AZIX Inc., and anime/manga publisher Central Park Media. He founded Anime NYC in 2017 and served as its event director.

MK Goodwin will become the new Event Director for Anime NYC, while Tatara stated he will still serve as a consultant of Anime NYC and LeftField Media. Specifically, he plans to teach the team, train them on previous Anime NYC processes, and make introductions to partners. Goodwin previously worked with Tatara at New York Comic Con and has been in charge of LeftField Media's comic cons.

Anime NYC took place last year on November 18-20 at New York City's Javits Center. The event will take place this year on November 17-19. The event will continue to have the same space that it has used in the past few years at New York City's Javits Center. However, the staff is trying to expand the convention into the full Javits Center, as opposed to just part of it, in the future. As an alternative, they are looking into adding nearby venues in the Hudson Yards and Times Square neighborhoods. The staff will reveal more information later this year.

Source: Email correspondence