UCLA Forges Partnership to Welcome Los Angeles Film Festival

Film Independent’s Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) will take up residence in June in its new home in Westwood Village. The Festival’s most prominent neighbor, UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, will play a prominent role in this screen fest. Cathy Schulman — this year’s Oscar winner for producing “Crash” and a professor in the UCLA Producers Program — will deliver the keynote address.

“We’ve been working with Film Independent for a year and a half to bring this festival to Westwood and UCLA,” said Barbara Boyle, chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media. “I’m thrilled to be establishing this partnership.”

The June 22–July 2 festival will screen more than 170 feature and short films to tens of thousands of visitors. The lineup spans the globe and covers the spectrum of moviemaking, from independents on Mini-DV to big-budget studio blockbusters. Among the celebrity-studded events — all open to the public — will be world premieres, tribute screenings, VIP parties, opening- and closing-night galas, coffee talks, poolside chats and porch parties.

Festival events will take place at nearly a dozen venues in the village and on the UCLA campus, including the Landmark Regent Theatre, the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, the Italian Cultural Institute and the UCLA Hammer Museum.

“With 60,000 attendees last year and more expected this year, Westwood Village is the perfect location for our festival’s growing audience,” said festival director Rich Raddon.

To celebrate the festival’s arrival at Westwood, the UCLA Film & Television Archive will collaborate on a diverse array of events:

- In a program entitled “LA Noir,” writers Alain Silver and James Ursini will host an armchair excursion, fortified with plenty of movie clips, to the shooting locations of this most Los Angeles-centric of genres. Attendees will receive a detailed map to take a self-guided tour of these locations.

- The Archive will also present “LA International,” a tribute to three émigré directors who are quite possibly the most important Los Angeles filmmakers you have never heard of: Parviz Sayyad, Shin Sang-ok and Cecile T?ang Shu-shuen.

- In “The Films That Got Away,” the spotlight will fall on remarkable films that have so far eluded Los Angeles screens.

Events will be offered to the public by a diverse group of UCLA professors and prominent guests:

- On June 23, during the day-long seminar The Revolution Will Be Digitized Technology and Its Impact on Film, filmmakers, media artists, journalists, and industry and technology experts will explore the ways in which digital technologies are changing every aspect of the industry, from production to consumption. The panel features Nancy Richardson, ACE, professor, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and editor on such feature films as “Thirteen” and “Lords of Dogtown.”

- The Financing Conference on June 24 will cover a wide range of issues related to funding this most expensive of art forms, from the low-budget basics to the arcane entanglements of international pre-sales. Barbara Boyle, chair, UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, will participate in the panel discussion “The Proof is in the Pitching.” In addition, six students enrolled in the UCLA Producers Program will present project pitches during the conference.

Both events are co-presented by LAFF and the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

In addition, The Geffen Playhouse will host a series of LAFF Coffee Talks on a variety of topics in their new Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater on Sunday, June 25. At 11 a.m. the topic is Directors; at 1 p.m. the subject is Actors; at 3 p.m. the discussion will revolve around Composers and at 5 p.m. the focus is on Screenwriters.

UCLA Spotlight Award-winning student films will be screened Sunday, July 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the Majestic Crest theater in Westwood. The UCLA Spotlight award has helped launch the careers of numerous gifted filmmakers, including Alexander Payne (“Sideways”), Todd Holland (“Malcolm in the Middle”), Shane Acker (“9”) and Gil Kenan (“Monster House”).

Visit www.cinema.ucla.edu or www.lafilmfest.com for up-to-date information.

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Keywords

"alexander payne" "shane acker" "barbara boyle" "nancy richardson" "cathy schulman" 

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