Los Angeles Film Festival Turns Sweet 16

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 17 June 2010 19:45

Written by Laura Blum

In a town where seeing movies is a busman's holiday, how does a film festival seduce industry brass? That's one riddle teasing the Los Angeles Film Festival as it heads into its 16th reel in Los Angeles, California, June 17 to 27, 2010.

Another is how to ignite a sense of "must see" for this Academy Award-qualifying forum that comes so early in the awards cycle. (Answer: offer free tickets.) And yet another brain teaser gets at the Festival's very identity and purpose.

Nearly a decade ago, LAFF dropped "independent" from its name with the idea of broadening its appeal. That was shortly after it was taken over by non-profit shingle Film Independent, the IFP/Los Angeles reincarnation that runs the Spirit Awards. So since the early 00s, the Festival has been showcasing American indie and world cinema while also dangling Hollywood fare and some of the tinseled names behind it.

As has become all too familiar to LAFF director Rebecca Yeldlam and now David Ansen – the former Newsweek film critic who marks his first year as artistic director -- this strategy has stirred some questions about the Festival's target audience. Yet providing something for all Angelinos appears precisely the point.

LAFF is expected to draw 80,000 attendees to its new Downtown home. Short of an earthquake pulverizing a major thoroughfare, few other events could occasion the pitter-patter of so many pedestrians in L.A. The pull is more than 100 features, shorts, and music videos from some 40 countries -- plus, the organizers hope, greater artistic cachet than its old Westwood Village holler could offer. The main redoubt for the 2010 Festival is the L.A. Live complex and its Regal Theaters multiplex.

This year the Festival will mount the world premieres of two big, shiny titles, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (invitation only) and the animated work, Despicable Me. And Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Ben Affleck and Josh Brolin are among the celebrities lending their spark to the 10-day event. To be sure, sharing air space with movie makers and talent has its perks.

The Opening Night film is Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore. The creator of High Art and Laurel Canyon marries melodrama with comic relief in this Focus Features production about two siblings (Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska) who seek out their lesbian parents' sperm donor (Mark Ruffalo) and unleash family chaos. As Moore's character notes, a grounding in Russian novels would help in assimilating the story's satisfyingly layered dynamics, and that about sums up why some festival-goers will adore it, and others may run for the Hollywood Hills.

Other brightly anticipated titles are The Tillman Story, Amir Bar-Lev's documentary about former NFL star Pat Tillman, who died during military service in Afghanistan, and the gala screening of Revolución, a collaboration by Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Rodrigo García and seven other Mexican filmmakers marking the centennial of the Mexican Revolution.

Harder core cinephiles will relish the four-title retrospective of Argentine director, producer and screenwriter Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, including his 1959 gothic tale of sexual awakening, The Fall/La caída). And digging further back in the foreign film archives, they'll find Carl Froelich's rarely shown 1913 film, The Life of Richard Wagner. This silent relic from the dawn of film biography charts the composer's coming of age and artistic apotheosis as the creator of Parsifal and The Ring.

For a current take on a dead, white, German-speaking composer, there's the gala world premiere of Mahler on the Couch/Mahler auf der Couch. Directed by Percy Adlon, it noses into Gustav Mahler's nosing into his young wife's adulterous affair, and what Sigmund Freud had to say about it.

Alongside the program of screenings, some of which will take place under the stars at the Ford Amphitheater, LAFF will present panels, professional seminars and Family Day. Its hallmark event is the two-day pre-Festival filmmakers retreat, hosted by this year's guest director Kathryn Bigelow at Skywalker Ranch in Northern California.

Nearly as buzzed about is the Spirit of Independence Award ceremony and gala. But this being L.A., steep competition comes from the Festival's Poolside Chats.

For comprehensive details, consult www.lafilmfest.com.

Los Angeles Film Festival
June 17 to 27, 2010
866-345-6337

Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE Stadium 14
1000 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90015

GRAMMY Museum
800 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Downtown Independent Theatre
251 South Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

REDCAT
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre
631 West 2nd Street
(@ Disney Concert Hall)
Los Angeles, CA 90012

John Anson Ford Amphitheater
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East
Hollywood, CA 90068

Grand Performances @ California Plaza
350 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90071

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