Premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Jersey Boys, Directed by Clint Eastwood, to Close the Festival
Galas Include Ira Sachs’ Love Is Strange, Justin Simien’s Dear White People and Hossein Amini’s The Two Faces of January
17 Films Chosen for Narrative & Documentary Competition
The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by Film Independent, in conjunction with Presenting Media Sponsor the Los Angeles Times and Host Partner L.A. LIVE, has announced its official US and international selections. Now in its 20th year, the Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by Film Independent, showcases diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision in new American and international cinema, and provides the movie-loving public with one-of-a-kind events featuring critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent from around the world.
The Festival’s signature programs include the Filmmaker Retreat, Music in Film Nights at The GRAMMY Museum®, Celebrating Women Filmmakers, Master Classes, Spirit of Independence Award, LA Muse and more. Over 200 features, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 40 countries, make up the main body of the Festival. The Festival also screens short films created by high school students and a special section devoted to music videos.
The Festival hosts juried cash awards for best narrative and documentary features, best narrative, documentary and animated short film, and a jury award for best performance in the narrative competition. Audience awards are presented to best documentary, narrative and international feature, short film and music video.
This year, the Festival received 5,952 submissions from filmmakers around the world, compared to 5,428 last year. The final selections represent 35 World, International, North American and US premieres. 17 of the premieres are in the Narrative and Documentary Competition sections. 9 of the World Premieres are in the inaugural LA Muse section.
The Los Angeles Film Festival programming team is comprised of Festival Director Stephanie Allain, Artistic Director David Ansen, Associate Director of Programming Doug Jones, Senior Programmer Maggie Mackay, Programmer Jenn Wilson, Shorts & Latin American Programmer Hebe Tabachnik, Short Film and Music Video Programmer Drea Clark, as well as Guest Curators of the LA Muse section, Elvis Mitchell and Roya Rastegar.
Warner Bros. Pictures’ Jersey Boys, directed by Clint Eastwood, will be the Closing Night film for the 2014 Festival. The film stars John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen,Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza and Oscar® winner Christopher Walken. Also announced are the Festival’s Gala Screenings, which include Ira Sachs’ Love Is Strange, Justin Simien’s Dear White People, and Hossein Amini’s The Two Faces of January. Opening the Festival will be the North American premiere of Bong Joon-ho‘s Snowpiercer.
The 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival, which returns to downtown Los Angeles at L.A. LIVE for a fifth year and runs from Wednesday, June 11 to Thursday, June 19, will screen a diverse slate of nearly 200 feature films, shorts and music videos from 40 countries; and as previously announced, filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko will serve as Guest Director, and Sony Pictures Classics‘ Tom Bernard and Michael Barker will receive the Spirit of Independence Award. A conversation with them will be followed by a screening of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
Also announced earlier: the Master Class with Academy Award®-winning musician/producer/composer Atticus Ross (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network); Funny Talk, A Conversation with Key and Peele; and the Festival’s annual celebration of women’s achievements in film, Women Who Call the Shots: A Celebration of Women Directors and Showrunners, featuring Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone), Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said), Marta Kauffman (Friends) and Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love and Basketball). The Festival has also partnered with Funny Or Die to launch Make ‘em LAFF, an internet talent search to discover content creators of color and underrepresented voices who specialize in comedy.
“Los Angeles has nurtured the collective hopes and dreams of generations,” said Allain, Festival Director. “This year in honor of our 20th anniversary, we’re putting the spotlight on films, conversations and performances inspired by the spirit of L.A. Many events are One Night Only so come out and celebrate!“
The Festival concludes with the Premiere of Warner Bros Pictures’ Jersey Boys. The film is the big-screen version of the Tony Award-winning musical “Jersey Boys” and tells the story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons. The story of their trials and triumphs are accompanied by the songs that influenced a generation, including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Dawn,” “Rag Doll,” “Bye Bye Baby,” “Who Loves You” and many more. Warner Bros. will release the film on June 20.
“We’ve got an amazing line-up for our 20th anniversary: starting with a bang with Bong and ending with a musical celebration from Clint Eastwood,” said Ansen. “It’s exciting to see Eastwood still tackling new forms. His deft, rousing translation of ‘Jersey Boys’ from stage to screen is further confirmation of his amazing, ageless talent.”
Ansen adds, “This is truly a festival for new discoveries—35 Premieres (23 of them World Premieres) and festival gems culled from all over the world. We have more matinees this year, so you can make a whole day of it. I think we’ve put together a feast—a grand mix of comedies, dramas, documentaries, thrillers, shorts, retros and art house fare—that will appeal to movie lovers of every stripe.”
The Gala Screenings at the 2014 Festival include Ira Sachs’ Love Is Strange, which stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as longtime companions who finally get to marry, only to be separated when they’re forced out of their New York apartment in Sach’s ode to love, family ties and big city life. Also part of the Gala Screenings is Justin Simien‘s Dear White People starring Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris, Brandon Bell. When a riot breaks out over a popular African-American-themed party thrown by a white fraternity, four black students at Winchester University are provoked to take divergent actions in Simien’s breakthrough satire. Also in the Gala section is screenwriter Hossein Amini‘s directing debut, The Two Faces of January, a sleek thriller set in Greece and Istanbul in 1962. Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac are three Americans abroad caught in a web of murder and deceit in this taught, stylish adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith thriller. Amini is the Oscar®-nominated screenwriter of works like Drive and The Wings of the Dove.
Another highlight from this year’s line-up is the Free Community Screenings, including the pre-festival screening of Clueless from director Amy Heckerling. Other Free Festival screenings include a Dance-A-Long screening of Luis Valdez’s La Bamba, Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker‘s I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story, Buster Keaton‘s Cops and Sherlock Jr., and Thomas Miller‘s Limited Partnership.
The Music Video section is comprised of Eclectic Mix 1 & 2 and I See Music: Exploring Beyoncé’s Visual Album, a simultaneous audio/visual experience, screening the non-linear short films that illustrate the songs on her most recent release, followed by an extended talk with the creators and directors of those videos. The Festival is also adding a brand Interactive section called Let’s Play, which features an international selection of video game play throughs with commentary by the gamers and developers.
More special screenings and programs will be announced in the coming weeks.
Narrative Competition (9): The Narrative Competition is comprised of films made by talented emerging filmmakers that compete for the Filmmaker Award. The winner is determined by a panel of jurors, and films in this section are also eligible for the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature or Best International Feature.
10 Minutes, Dir. Lee Yong-Seung, South Korea. North American Premiere.
Comet, Dir. Sam Esmail, USA. World Premiere.
Lake Los Angeles, Dir. Mike Ott, USA. World Premiere.
Man From Reno, Dir. Dave Boyle, USA. World Premiere.
Recommended By Enrique, Dir. Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia, USA/Argentina/France. World Premiere.
Runoff, Dir. Kimberly Levin, USA. World Premiere.
Someone You Love, Dir. Pernille Fischer Christensen, Denmark. North American Premiere.
Uncertain Terms, Dir. Nathan Silver, USA. World Premiere.
The Young Kieslowski, Dir. Kerem Sanga, USA. World Premiere.
Documentary Competition (8): The Documentary Competition is comprised of films made by talented emerging documentary filmmakers that compete for the Documentary Award. The winner is determined by a panel of jurors, and films in this section are also eligible for the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature or Best International Feature.
Billy Mize and the Bakersfield Sound, Dir. William J. Saunders, USA. World Premiere.
The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest, Dir. Gabriel London, USA/Canada. US Premiere.
Meet the Patels, Dirs. Geeta V. Patel, Ravi V. Patel, USA/India. US Premiere.
My Name Is Salt, Dir. Farida Pacha, Switzerland/India. North American Premiere.
Out in the Night, Dir. blair dorosh-walther, USA. World Premiere.
Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story, Dir. N.C. Heikin, USA. World Premiere.
Stray Dog, Dir. Debra Granik, USA. World Premiere.
Walking Under Water, Dir. Eliza Kubarska, Poland/Germany/UK. US Premiere.
LA Muse (11) Programmed by Stephanie Allain, Festival Director, Film Independent at LACMA curator Elvis Mitchell and artist/scholar Roya Rastegar, the LA Muse section is comprised of films made by talented emerging filmmakers that are set, shot or inspired by Los Angeles. Select films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best LA Muse Feature, Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature or Best International Feature.
Dreams are Colder than Death, Dirs. Arthur Jafa, Kahlil Joseph, USA. World Premiere.
Eat With Me, Dir. David Au, USA. World Premiere.
Echo Park, Dir. Amanda Marsalis, USA. World Premiere.
The Ever After, Dir. Mark Webber, USA/Australia. World Premiere.
Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey, Dir. Scott Teems, USA. Sneak Peek.
Inner Demons, Dir. Seth Grossman, USA. World Premiere.
Los Ángeles, Dir. Damian John Harper, Mexico/Germany. International Premiere.
Nightingale, Dir. Elliott Lester, USA. World Premiere.
The Road Within, Dir. Gren Wells, USA. World Premiere.
Supremacy, Dir. Deon Taylor, USA. World Premiere.
Trouble Dolls, Dirs. Jess Weixler, Jennifer Prediger, USA. World Premiere
International Showcase (11): The International Showcase highlights innovative independent narrative and documentary features from outside of the United States. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature or Best Documentary Feature.
Club Sandwich, Dir. Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico.
The Great Museum, Dir. Johannes Holzhausen, Austria.
Han Gong-Ju, Dir. Lee Sujin, South Korea.
Joy of Man’s Desiring, Dir. Denis Coté, Canada. US Premiere.
The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, Dir. Guillaume Nicloux, France.
The Liberator, Dir. Alberto Arvelo, Venezuela/Spain.
Natural Sciences, Dir. Matías Lucchesi, Argentina/France.
Of Horses and Men, Dir. Benedikt Erlingsson, Iceland/Germany.
Starred Up, Dir. David Mackenzie, Northern Ireland/UK.
Stream of Love, Dir. Àgnes Sòs, Hungary.
Violette, Dir. Martin Provost, France.
Summer Showcase (11): The Summer Showcase section offers an advanced look at this summer’s most talked about independent film releases and will include highlights from the festival circuit and premieres. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature or Best Documentary Feature.
The Battered Bastards of Baseball, Dirs. Chapman Way, Maclain Way, USA.
Cut Bank, Dir. Matt Shakman, USA. World Premiere.
Evolution of a Criminal, Dir. Darius Clark Monroe, USA.
Frank, Dir. Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland/UK.
Harmontown, Dir. Neil Berkley, USA.
Jimi: All is By My Side, Dir. John Ridley, USA.
Land Ho!, Dirs. Martha Stephens, Aaron Katz, Iceland/USA.
Last Days in Vietnam, Dir. Rory Kennedy, USA.
The Last Time You Had Fun, Dir. Mo Perkins, USA. World Premiere.
The Overnighters, Dir. Jesse Moss, USA.
A Thousand Times Good Night, Dir. Erik Poppe, Ireland/Norway/Sweden.
Free Community Screenings (5): These films will be presented free to the public. New films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best Narrative Feature or Best Documentary Feature.
Clueless, Dir. Amy Heckerling, USA – Pre-Festival Screening
La Bamba (1987), Dir. Luis Valdez, USA. – Dance-A-Long at Union Station
Limited Partnership, Dir. Thomas G. Miller, USA. – Project Involve Screening
I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story, Dir. Dave LaMattina, Chad Walker, USA. – Grand Performances Screening
Sherlock Jr. (1924)/Cops (1922), Dir. Buster Keaton, USA. – Grand Performances Screening
The Beyond (3): The Beyond offers films that dare to be different. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature or Best Documentary Feature.
Giuseppe Makes a Movie, Dir. Adam Rifkin, USA. US Premiere.
Jossy’s, Dir. Yuichi Fukuda, Japan. International Premiere.
The Well, Dir. Tom Hammock, USA. World Premiere.
Retro (2):
Friday (1995), Dir. F. Gary Gray, USA. – Ice Cube in Conversation
Repo Man (1984), Dir. Alex Cox, USA. – 30th Anniversary Screening
The Film That Got Away: The Film That Got Away is an ongoing series of outstanding recent films that haven’t yet screened locally, curated by members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Caterpillar (2010), Dir. Koji Wakamatsu, Japan
Short Films (40): Shorts are shown before features and as part of four short film programs. With their diverse and complex content, these films shine brilliantly. Most short films, domestic and international, will compete for prizes in Narrative, Documentary and Animation/Experimental categories. The winner is determined by a panel of jurors. An Audience Award for Best Short Film is also presented.
Shorts Program 1-4
Future Filmmakers Showcase: High School Shorts (29): These two programs of shorts are made by high school students from around the world, featuring work by the next generation of filmmakers.
Programs 1-2
Interactive (9) An international selection of video game playthroughs with commentary by the gamer, the Let’s Plays highlighted here exhibit a range of independent games (horror, interactive fiction, playable character quests, minimalistic platformer) as well as a variety of gamer/commenter approaches (instructional, humorous, multi-player). Game developers and Let’s Play video creators will be in attendance for a Q&A.
Let’s Play
Music Videos (51): The Music Video Showcase consists of three programs. I See Music: Exploring Beyoncé’s Visual Album is a simultaneous audio/visual experience, screening the non-linear short films that illustrate the songs on her most recent release, followed by an extended talk with the creators and directors of those videos, focusing on the artistry of the creation process and the tones and themes expressed throughout. Eclectic Mix 1 and 2 are visual mix tapes of this year’s best independent music videos with a few innovative major label artists thrown in for good measure. Music videos will compete for an Audience Award.
Eclectic Mix 1 – 2
I See Music: Exploring Beyoncé’s Visual Album
Passes are currently on sale to Film Independent members and the general public. In addition to screenings and events, Festival passes provide access to a series of networking receptions and entry to the Festival Lounge, where Festival pass holders can interact with Festival filmmakers and professionals in the film community. General admission tickets to individual films go on sale beginning May 20. Contact the Ticket Office for passes, tickets and event information by calling 866.FILM.FEST (866.345.6337) or visit www.LAFilmFest.com.
The Official Host Venue is Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE Stadium 14. Subaru is the Official Automotive Sponsor. Relativity is a Principal Sponsor. Platinum Sponsors include HBO, Jaeger-LeCoultre Stella Artois, Dolby Laboratories, Inc. and EFILM. The University Sponsor isLoyola Marymount University. Renwood Winery is the Official Wine Provider. Tanqueray is the Official Gin Provider. The Los Angeles Athletic Club is the Official Host Hotel. WireImage is the Official Photography Agency and PR Newswire is the Official Breaking News Service of Film Independent. More information can be found at lafilmfest.com.
For the ninth year, the Los Angeles Times will serve as the Festival’s Presenting Media Sponsor and will produce the Festival Guide, the comprehensive source for all movie info, screenings, locations and related special events. The Festival Guide will top the paper on Sunday, June 8 in Los Angeles and Orange County and will be made available throughout downtown Los Angeles during the nine-day event.
Filed under: Documentaries, festivals, Film Tagged: 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival 
