Danny Boyle says "film festivals are crucial" as TV's influence continues to grow.

Danny Boyle

Danny Boyle

The 'Yesterday' director - whose new movie focuses on a musician who finds himself in a world where no one else remembers The Beatles - has opened up on the significance of events focusing on the film industry despite the rise of popularity for streaming platforms and big budgets TV series.

Speaking after the Tribeca Film Festival closed with the world premiere of his latest project, he told Variety: "Film festivals are crucial, more and more crucial, especially as television grows in importance.

"The singular vision that a film says, that is one event, one event in time for you to experience...Tribeca is really crucial to that, to hearing new voices."

The 62-year-old filmmaker also heaped praise on the Fab Four - Sir Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - for the way they impacted the world, and he admitted he couldn't "imagine" where we'd be without the 'Hey Jude' hitmakers.

He added: "It's impossible to imagine it actually...They changed the world really.

"They were the first really to say, we want to concentrate on love and pleasure and music...we want to celebrate humanity. And they do that in a wonderful way."

'Yesterday' tells the story of singer-songwriter Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), who has an accident and wakes up to realise he is the only person who remembers The Beatles.

The movie also stars Lily James as Jack's best friend Ellie, Kate McKinnon as US agent Debra and features the likes of Ed Sheeran and James Corden as themselves.