Los Angeles Film Festival Awards 2009
2009 Los Angeles Film Festival Awards
2009 Los Angeles Film Festival: June 18-28
Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace’s debut feature Wah do dem (top) follows a man whose girlfriend has dumped him right before he goes off on a Caribbean cruise. Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman’s Those Who Remain (middle) portrays the effects of Mexican emigration to the United States on those family members who are left behind. Eva Norvind’s Born Without (bottom) chronicles the lives and loves of three-foot-tall, Mexican street artist José Flores, who was born without arms.
Target Filmmaker Award (for Best Narrative Feature)
Wah Do Dem (What They Do) written and directed by Sam Fleischner & Ben Chace
Target Documentary Award (for Best Documentary [...]
by Deborah Arthur | June 28, 2009
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Tags: Born Without, Cyrus Nowrasteh, Film Awards, Film Festivals, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Soul Power, The Stoning of Soraya M., Those Who Remain, Time and Again, Wah Do Dem
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: THE COVE, UNITED RED ARMY, Music Videos
Eight time world-champion freediver Mandy Rae Cruickshank and humpback whale friend in The Cove (top); The Cove by Louie Psihoyos (2nd from top); United Red Army by Koji Wakamatsu (2nd from bottom); “Fortress: Pinback” by Elliot Jokelson (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival, Sunday, June 28, highlights:
Louie Psihoyos‘ documentary The Cove (Majestic Crest, 1 pm), the Audience Award winner at Sundance 2009, delves into the ruthless dolphin trade — yeah, those very sea mammals that make little children and their big parents smile gleefully and clap enthusiastically at places like Sea World and the like. What mom, dad, and kiddies are blissfully ignorant about is how those beautiful, intelligent creatures end up as unwilling participants in circus acts for ugly, imbecile humans. [...]
by Andre Soares | June 27, 2009
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Tags: Film Festivals, Fortress: Pinback, Koji Wakamatsu, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Los Angeles Screenings, Louie Psihoyos, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, Our Beloved Month of August, Richard O'Barry, The Cove, United Red Army
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: Pandas, Jeanne Crain, Dennis Hopper & Zombies
Shu Hin, Ryu Hin in Panda Diary (top); Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews in Hot Rods to Hell (middle); ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival, Saturday, June 27, highlights:
A second screening of Sophie Barthes‘ Cold Souls (The Regent, 1:30 pm), starring Paul Giamatti as a man whose soul is smuggled into Russia.
Narrated by the panda Shu Hin, Tadashi Mori’s documentary Panda Story (Landmark 8, 2 pm) follows the narrator and her twin brother, Ryu Hin, as they are moved from their homeland to some strange place, far, far away.
A second screening of Blayne Weaver’s Weather Girl (Landmark 4, 4:30 pm), a romantic comedy about a weather girl with a high-pressure love life.
John Brahm’s 1967 biker thriller Hot Rods [...]
by Andre Soares | June 26, 2009
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Tags: Dana Andrews, Dennis Hopper, Film Festivals, Hot Rods to Hell, Jeanne Crain, Kevin Hamedani, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Los Angeles Screenings, Panda Diary, ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: UNMADE BEDS, COLD SOULS, ZMD: ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION
Unmade Beds (top); Paul Giamatti in Cold Souls (2nd from top); Autumn (2nd from bottom); ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival, Thu., June 25, highlights:
Alexis dos Santos‘ Unmade Beds (Landmark 4, 2:30 pm) chronicles the emotional, romantic, and sexual entanglements of a group of young denizens of London’s East End. In the cast: Déborah François, Fernando Tielve, Michiel Huisman, Iddo Goldberg, and Richard Lintern.
A second screening of Matthew Bissonnette’s Passenger Side (Landmark 8, 4:30 pm), which follows two estranged brothers — one an ex-junkie (Joel Bissonnette); the other a struggling writer (Adam Scott) — through the streets and freeways of Los Angeles and the nearby desert. Throughout it all the brothers get to know a little [...]
by Andre Soares | June 24, 2009
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Tags: Alexis Dos Santos, Cold Souls, Film Festivals, Kevin Hamedani, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Los Angeles Screenings, Matthew Bissonnette, Passenger Side, Paul Giamatti, Sophie Barthes, Unmade Beds, ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: ZERO BRIDGE, I SELL THE DEAD, WEATHER GIRL
Zero Bridge (top); I Sell the Dead (middle); Weather Girl (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival highlights on Wed., June 24:
John Maringouin’s Big River Man, about a middle-aged, pot-bellied Slovenian who decides to swim the length (or rather, the width) of the Amazon River, will have its second screening at the Landmark 8 at 2:15 pm.
The panel "Poolside Chat: Reel Life LA" (W Los Angeles-Westwood Hotel, 7 pm) will feature Martin Landau, Larenz Tate, and others. Moderated by Taylor Hackford.
Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi play versions of themselves in Nicholas Jasenovec’s Paper Heart (Mann Festival Theatre, 7 pm), in which Yi sets out to discover what Americans think about the nature of love. Along the way, she finds herself becoming [...]
by Andre Soares | June 23, 2009
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Tags: Blayne Weaver, Film Festivals, Glenn McQuaid, I Sell the Dead, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Los Angeles Screenings, Michael Cera, Paper Heart, Tariq Tapa, Weather Girl, Zero Bridge
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: CARMEN MEETS BORAT, 35 SHOTS OF RUM, PUBLIC ENEMIES
Carmen Meets Borat (top); 35 Shots of Rum (middle); Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard in Public Enemies (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival, Tuesday, June 23:
In Mercedes Stalenhoef’s Carmen Meets Borat (The Regent, 2 pm), a Romanian teenager dreams of going to Spain to escape the backwards town in which she lives. (The place is so backwards that she’s called "granny" because she remains unmarried at 17.) Inadvertently, Sacha Baron Cohen and his Borat crew change her life after they arrive in town to portray the locals as backwards Kazakhs. TV crews follow suit, and so do lawyers with the promise of hefty lawsuits. Will the adolescent’s Spanish Dream be able to come true?
Brent Meeske’s Branson, about struggling artists in the "Entertainment Capital [...]
by Andre Soares | June 22, 2009
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Tags: 35 Shots of Rum, Carmen Meets Borat, Claire Denis, Film Festivals, Jean-Marie Téno, Johnny Depp, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Los Angeles Screenings, Marion Cotillard, Mercedes Stalenhoef, Public Enemies
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: PAPER MAN, THE QUEEN AND I, EXTRAORDINARY STORIES
Jeff Daniels, Ryan Reynolds in Paper Man (top); Nahid Persson Sarvestani, Empress Farah Diba in The Queen and I (middle); AnneBruce Falconer in Danse Macabre (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival, Monday, June 21, highlights:
Michele Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney’s Paper Man (Landmark 4, 2 pm) stars Jeff Daniels as a middle-aged teacher who goes through growing pains after befriending a teenage girl. Also in the cast: Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Kieran Culkin, Hunter Parrish, Lisa Kudrow.
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim’s documentary It Might Get Loud (Landmark 8, 2 pm) depicts the meeting of three generations of guitar musicians: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s The Edge, and the White Stripes‘ Jack White. Both Page and White are expected to attend the [...]
by Andre Soares | June 21, 2009
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Tags: Danse Macabre, Davis Guggenheim, Extraordinary Stories, Farah Diba, It Might Get Loud, Jeff Daniels, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Mariano Llinás, Nahid Persson Sarvestani, Ryan Reynolds
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: HOLLYWOOD, JE T’AIME; BRANSON; EL GENERAL
Chad Allen, Eric Debets in Hollywood, je t’aime (top); Branson (middle); El General (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival Sunday, June 21, highlights:
One-hour "Coffee Talks" (W Los Angeles-Westwood Hotel, beginning at 11 am) with directors (Zach Helm, Todd Phillips, Jason Reitman), actors (Andre Royo, Melissa Leo, Freddy Rodriguez), composers (Harry Gregson-Williams, Lyle Workman, Christopher Young), and screenwriters (Nicholas Kazan, Robin Swicord, Alex Tse).
Starring Eric Debets as a befuddled Frenchman who comes to Los Angeles expecting to make it in the movie business, writer-director Jason Bushman’s clever, funny Hollywood, je t’aime (Majestic Crest, 7 pm) seems to be the only narrative film in competition with a gay theme. Debets’ remarkable, understated comic performance would have done Jacques Tati proud, while the colorful characters [...]
by Andre Soares | June 20, 2009
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Tags: Branson, Chad Allen, El General, Eric Debets, Film Festivals, Gay Interest, Hollywood je t'aime, Jason Bushman, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Los Angeles Screenings, Natalia Almada
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: THE STONING OF SORAYA M., BRONSON, BIG RIVER MAN
Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mozhan Marnò in The Stoning of Soraya M. (top); Martin Strel in Big River Man (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009 – Saturday, June 20, highlights:
Starring Academy Award-nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jim Caviezel, and Mozhan Marnò, Cyrus Nowrasteh’s The Stoning of Soraya M. (Mann Festival Theater, 3:30 pm) revolves around the true story of a woman who suffers a nasty fate following an arranged marriage. Nowrasteh and Aghdashloo will be among those present for a post-screening discussion about women’s rights in Islamic countries and other related issues.
In Gabriel Mascaro’s Um Lugar ao Sol / High-Rise (Landmark 4, 9:45 pm), Rio de Janeiro’s wealthy denizens discuss what’s like to live in luxury in a country like Brazil, which has one [...]
by Andre Soares | June 19, 2009
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Tags: Big River Man, Cyrus Nowrasteh, Film Festivals, Gabriel Mascaro, John Maringouin, Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival 2009, Los Angeles Screenings, Nicolas Winding Refn, Shohreh Aghdashloo, The Stoning of Soraya M.
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009: HUMPDAY, PASSENGER SIDE, EMBODIMENT OF EVIL
Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard in Humpday (top); Embodiment of Evil (middle); Joel Bissonnette, Adam Scott in Passenger Side (bottom)
A few highlights today at the Los Angeles Film Festival, currently being held (mostly) in the Westwood Village and at the Westside’s Landmark theater complex. The festival runs until June 28.
Among today’s highlights are:
Passenger Side, one of the recommendations in the L.A. Weekly, which describes the Canadian dramatic comedy as "literate, amusing and unexpectedly moving." Written and directed by Matthew Bissonnette, the film follows two brothers — struggling writer Adam Scott and ex-junkie Joel Bissonnette (Matthew’s brother) — on a road trip throughout the Los Angeles area.
Stella, about a streetwise 11-year-old girl who finds herself [...]
