LA Live

Move over Cannes, it’s LA calling. That is, the annual LA Film Fest, which, for the past 16 years, has held sway over the best in independent cinema in a super showcasing event that connects film makers, directors and a swell of emerging talent to the Hollywood film machine and legions of appreciative audiences.

This year the film festival runs from June 16-27 in eight luxe theater venues around the city. While some shows will run at the Regal Cinemaplex at LA Live downtown, others will screen at the Grammy Museum and Nokia Theater and also at LA Live, the REDCAT Theater, the John Anson Ford Amphitheater in North Hollywood, the outdoor California Plaza Amphitheater and the Orpheum Theater.

The opening night festivities kick off at the Premiere Theater of Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE Stadium 14 with The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson – two teenaged children conceived by artificial insemination decide to seek out their birth father and introduce him to their two mothers (Bening, Moore) have built for them. Once the donor (Ruffalo) is found, the household will never be the same, as family ties are defined, re-defined, and re-re-defined.

Universal Pictures’ world premiere of the 3-D CGI feature Despicable Me will close the Festival on June 27 at Nokia Theatre. The cast includes Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, Jemaine Clement, Miranda Cosgrove, Jack McBrayer and Julie Andrews. One of the world’s greatest super-villains is planning the biggest heist in the history of the world: to steal the moon. Surrounded by an army of mischievous little yellow minions and armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays and battle-ready vehicles, the villain vanquishes all who stand in his way until the day he encounters the immense will of three little girls who look at him as a potential dad.

Other feature films in the line-up include Sony Pictures Classics’ Animal Kingdom, directed by David Michod; Fox Searchlight’s Cyrus, directed by Jay & Mark Duplass; the world premiere of Mahler on the Couch, directed by Percy and Felix Adlon; the North American premiere of Revolución, a series of short films; and Paramount Vantage’s Waiting for Superman, directed by Davis Guggenheim.

A cascading roster of global independent works will be shown around the city and compete for best in category while the city’s fashion forward restaurants and hotel venues host parties for the film makers, casts and industry.

Admissions come in all shapes and sizes from a four-pack for films only at the Ford Amphitheater (four for $40), or a five-pack for citywide films and discussions (five for $50) to a $1,000 fast pass that brings a priority admission to any gala screening, regular screening, conversation, poolside chat or coffee talk, plus two tickets to the opening and closing sessions and priority access for most other events and screenings during the fest.

- by Lark Ellen Gould, Los Angeles Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Lark Ellen Gould

Lark Ellen Gould has penned seven books on Las Vegas and Los Angeles as a veteran news and travel writer. Her work appears in the L.A. Times, Elite Traveler, Travel Agent Magazine and other national forums. She lived in Boston for many years, earning her masters degree and then traveling the globe for stories. Today she lives in LA and still travels the world on assignment while filling the pages of her travel site: www.wheredaily.com, along the way.