LA Film Festival 2018 Winners

By José Alberto Hermosillo

LA Film Festival announced the winners

The U.S. Fiction Award 

 This Teacher
 Dir. Mark Jackson, World Premiere

U.S. Fiction Special Mention

In Reality
Dir. Ann Lupo, California Premiere

World Fiction Award

Border
Dir. Ali Abbasi, California Premiere

Sweden

World Fiction Special Jury Prize, Directing

The Day I Lost My Shadow  

Dir. Soudade Kaadan, US Premiere

France/Lebanon/Qatar/Syrian Arab Republic

Hillbilly directors Sally Rubin & Ashley York
Photo, Jose Hermosillo
Copyright ©2018, Festival in LA

Documentary Award

Hillbilly 
Dir. Sally Rubin & Ashley York, LA Premiere

USA

   Documentary Special Jury Award for

Excellence in Social Justice Storytelling

False Confessions 
Dir. Katrine Philp, North American Premiere

Denmark

LA Muse Award

Staycation 
Dir. Tanuj Chopra, World Premiere

USA

Fire on the Hill. Festival in LA ©2018

LA Muse Documentary Award

 Fire on the Hill  
Dir. Brett Fallentine, World Premiere

 USA

LA Muse Special Mention, Best Ensemble Cast

Solace 
Dir. Tchaiko Omawale, World Premiere

USA

Nightfall Award

The Dead Center  
Dir. Billy Senese, World Premiere
USA

Nightfall Special Jury Prize, Lead Actor

Actor: Ashleigh Morghan

Head Count  
Dir. Elle Callahan, World Premiere
USA

Nightfall Special Jury Prize, Ensemble Cast

Cast: Barak Hardley, Jackie Tohn, Magn's Jonsson, Birna Ron Eiriksdottir, Tom Wright, Stacey Moseley, Michael Nanfria, Michole Briana White, Brynd's Haraldsdttir

Spell 
Dir. Brendan Walter, World Premiere

Award for Short Fiction

The Passage 
Dir. Kitao Sakurai

USA

Award for Documentary Short

One Leg In, One Leg Out, dir. Lisa Rideout

Canada

Web Episodes Jury Award

Psusy, dir. Anna Duckworth

New Zealand

LA Film Festival 2018 Posters  Photo, Jose Hermosillo 
Copyright ©2018, Festival in LA

Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film

Brian Banks 
Dir. Tom Shadyac, World Premiere

USA

Audience Award for Documentary Feature Film

Stuntman 
Dir. Kurt Mattila, World Premiere

USA

Producers: Steven Golebiowski, Kurt Mattila, Eddie Braun

Featuring: Eddie Braun, Gary Davis, Conrad E. Palmisano, Buddy Joe Hooker, Scott Truax, Meg Braun

Audience Award for Music Video

Clutch 
Dir. Christopher Ripley

USA

Audience Award for Short Film

Weekends
Dir. Trevor Jimenez

USA

Audience Award for Episodic Story

Revenge Tour, dir. Andrew Carter

USA

Audience Award for Episodic Pilot

40 & Single 
Dir. Leila Djansi, World Premiere

Ghana

Seattle Story Award

 I’m Sorry Happy Birthday
Dir. Claire Buss, World Premiere

TikTok Real Short Award

Dir. Ann Lupo

TikTok gave Festival filmmakers the chance to win a $10,000 unrestricted cash grant. Ann’s video addressed the "Why I'm a Filmmaker" prompt with exceptional storytelling through the lens of TikTok, utilizing creator tools to enhance the narrative.

World Fiction Award - Border - Sweden - Trailer

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Festival in LA ©2018

LA FILM FESTIVAL 2018 ANNOUNCES ITS LINEUP

By José Alberto Hermosillo

Los Angeles Film Festival, produced by Film Independent has announced its lineup of films, documentaries, shorts, and Indi Series from the Web. 

LAFF is the same non-profit organization who produces the Independent Spirit Awards. 

To create an impact during the award season, LAFF has moved from the summer to the fall, September 20th to 28th, 2018.

The Venues for the 2018 Festival include the ArcLight Cinemas in Culver City, Hollywood, and Santa Monica, as well as the new LMU Playa Vista Campus (opening this fall), the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and the Writers Guild Theater.

LA Film Festival. Festival in LA © 2018

PROGRAM: 

U.S. Fiction Competition

Banana Split, dir. Benjamin Francis Kasulke, USA, World Premiere

In Reality, dir. Ann Lupo, co-dirs. Esteban Pedraza & Aaron Pryka, USA, California Premiere

Olympia, dir. Gregory Dixon, USA, World Premiere

Simple Wedding, dir. Sara Zandieh, USA, World Premiere

Softness of Bodies, dir. Jordan Blady, USA/Germany, World Premiere

This Teacher, dir. Mark Jackson, USA, World Premiere

The Wrong Todd, dir. Rob Schulbaum, USA, World Premiere

Documentary Competition

Behind the Curve, dir. Daniel J. Clark, USA, US Premiere

Facing the Dragon, dir. Sedika Mojadidi, USA/Afghanistan, World Premiere

False Confessions, dir. Katrine Philp, Denmark, North American Premiere

hillbilly, dirs. Sally Rubin, Ashley York, USA, LA Premiere

Mamacita, dir. José Pablo Estrada Torrescano, Mexico/Germany, US Premiere

Moroni for President, dir. Saila Huusko, Jasper Rischen, USA, LA Premiere

Same God, dir. Linda Midgett, USA, World Premiere

The Silence of Others, dirs. Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar, Spain, West Coast Premiere

Stammering Ballad, dir. Nan Zhang, China, North American Premiere

Wrestling Ghosts, dir. Ana Joanes, USA, World Premiere

World Fiction Competition

Border, dir. Ali Abbasi, Sweden, California Premiere

The Cotton Wool War, dirs. Cláudio Marques, Marilia Hughes, Brazil, US Premiere

The Day I Lost My Shadow, dir. Soudade Kaadan, France/Lebanon/Qatar/Syrian Arab Republic, US Premiere

Heaven Without People, dir. Lucien Bourjeily, Lebanon, LA Premiere

Microhabitat, dir. Jeon Go-Woon, South Korea, West Coast Premiere

Socrates, dir. Alex Moratto, Brazil, World Premiere

Tower. A Bright Day., dir. Jagoda Szelc, Poland/Czech Republic, LA Premiere

LA Muse

The Advocates, dir. Rémi Kessler, USA, World Premiere

El Chicano, dir. Ben Hernandez Bray, USA, World Premiere

Fire on the Hill, dir. Brett Fallentine, USA, World Premiere

Funke, dir. Gabriel Taraboulsy, USA, World Premiere

Making Montgomery Clift, dir. Robert A. Clift, Hillary Demmon, USA, World Premiere

Saint Judy, dir. Sean Hanish, USA, World Premiere

Solace, dir. Tchaiko Omawale, USA, California Premiere

Staycation, dir. Tanuj Chopra, USA, World Premiere

Stuntman, dir. Kurt Mattila, USA, World Premiere

We the Coyotes, dirs. Hanna Ladoul, Marco La Via, USA, North American Premiere

Nightfall

The Dead Center, dir. Billy Senese, USA, World Premiere

Deep Murder, dir. Nick Corirossi, USA, World Premiere

Ghost Light, dir. John Stimpson, USA, World Premiere

Head Count, dir. Elizabeth Callahan, USA, World Premiere

Spell, dir. Brendan Walter, USA, World Premiere

Thriller, dir. Dallas Jackson, USA, World Premiere

Episodes: Indie Series from the Web

Avant-Guardians, dir. Clarence Williams II, USA

Flatbush Misdemeanors, dirs. Dan Perlman, Kevin Iso, USA

Fresh, dir. Grant Scicluna, Australia

Kiki and Kitty, dir. Catriona Mackenzie, Australia

Otis, dir. Alexander Etseyatse, USA

Petal & Paint, dir. Bradley Smith, USA

Psusy, dirs. Duckworth, Jaya Beach-Robertson, New Zealand

Revenge Tour, dir. Andrew Carter, USA

Robits, dir. Christopher Parks, USA

Tracy Buckles, dir. Robin Nystrom, USA

LA Film Festival, 2017. Festival in LA © 2018

Box Office, passes, tickets, and information 866.FILM.FEST (866.345.6337) 

or visit lafilmfestival.com.

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Festival in LA ©2018

Heis (cronicles): Wins Los Angeles Film Festival World Fiction Award - Is it a Movie or Is It Art?

By Kenny Hargrove, 

HEIS (chronicles) Copyright 2016

LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL - MOVIE REVIEW.  Los Angeles, June 13, 2016 – “Heis (cronicles)”, the debut feature film from writer, director, cinematographer, and actress Anaïs Volpé, is a beautiful, poetic and contemplative collage of visual storytelling. It is as much a work of art as it is a very personal heartfelt family portrait.

Anaïs Volpé, “Heis (cronicles)” Photo by Kenny Hargrove, Copyrights 2016

The impressive debut from the young French woman was awarded the coveted World Fiction prize when it premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival last week. 

The multi-layered cross-media film tells the story of a young woman, forced to return home by a string of bad luck, who then makes a tortured decision to leave her family in France to move to China to pursue her art.  

“It’s all about the duty to stay versus the right to go”, said Volpé, who is also the star of the film.

For Volpe, who returned to France to pitch new projects before the awards were announced, it was a big surprise.   “I was already very happy to be in the selection but now, my joy is so big!  I didn't expect so much,” she said.

The very personal movie achieves its poetry from its unique history and masterful juxtaposition of images, which include fantasy characters, angels, monkeys and a video within the film about the protagonist’s mother.

What began as a Web series when Voplé visited Beijing and began to think about home, became a feature film that was crafted and re-crafted and then embellished with visual arts components that have been viewed in art galleries and at various exhibitions.   

HEIS (chronicles) Copyright 2016

“It is like a puzzle.” “During three years I did a lot of layers,” she explained.    

As a result, the final film is as much a work of art as it is a multilayered story. The textured work by the visual artist moves seamlessly between past and present, dreams and reality. While offering the innermost thoughts of the character through multi-layered visual images.  

  

“Heis” is a Greek word meaning to complete oneself but, like the works of veteran art-house auteurs Wim Wenders, Peter Greenaway, and Terrence Malick, Volpé’s film achieves a dream state that you won’t want to end.  

Volpé refers to her unique filmmaking style as “emergency cinema”, based on her urgent need to communicate this story of millennial malaise that affects an entire generation.  

    

She credits her close-knit team for the film’s success, including actor and co-cinematographer Alexandre Desane and actors Matthieu Longatte, Emilia Derou Bernal, Laura François, Malec Demiaro, and Akéla Sari (who died earlier this year). 

   

Volpé hopes that winning the Los Angeles Film Festival award will inspire other emerging independent filmmakers who are seeking to tell cinematic stories but struggling with very low budgets and little likelihood of other support.    

 
"With all the talk about diversifying Hollywood, the LA Film Festival provides proof that talented filmmakers with new voices are out there, they just need a platform and that's what we are providing," said LA Film Festival Director Stephanie Allain, herself the producer of the Oscar-winning "Hustle and Flow" and Sundance Film Festival favorite "Dear White People". 

   

“Heis” is an excellent example. “Winning this award means that everything could be possible”, said Volpe. “With a lot of work and patience, we can reach some of our goals”. However, instead of resting on her new laurels, Volpé is eager to create new work. 

 She recently pitched projects at the Cannes Film Festival market.  She is also hard at work writing two new screenplays, including a story about expatriates that she hopes to shoot in New York. 

Editor: Jose Alberto Hermosillo.

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Ten Movies to Die For at Los Angeles Film Festival 2014

©festivalinla.com

By Jose Alberto Hermosillo

The selection of the LAFF 2014, Presented by Film Independent, has films that are newly coming out of the oven, others have already won prizes at some festivals around the world, and some will make echoe at the end of the year at the award season. Los Angeles Film Festival 2014 runs from June 11 to 19 at the Regal Theaters, L.A. Live.

Festival in LA has picked ten of what we consider a must see, or in other words the top TEN MOVIES TO DIE FOR AT LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL.

  1. “Walking under Water”

         1. “Walking under Water” Absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking, superb piece of filmmaking. A wonderful documentary with a striking beauty, the cinematography is simply dazzling. "Walking under Water" vividly captures the life of two oceanic nomads of the crystal clean waters of the islands of Borneo. Exactly as in the movie “Drought/Cuates de Australia,” but with different ecosystems, one is in the desert and the other under water.  The film is directed by Eliza Kubarska. 

2. “Man from Reno”

        2. “Man from Reno” A well directed and edited film by Dave Bayle (“Big Dreams, Little Tokyo”), where in this murder/mystery/neo noir case drama, every clue is important.  The suspense keeps us wondering why, what, and who is behind the series of murders, while in San Francisco a prominent Japanese writer, Aki, starts losing control of her reality. Pepe Serna’s performance in “The Man from Reno” is a role of a lifetime.

3. “Stray Dog”

       3. “Stray Dog” A documentary about an American hero riding his bike around the country. The Vietnam veteran moves forward to help others, his family, his comrades and the families of others lost in combat. Comprehension, love, and wellness are the key elements to move on with their lives regardless of their dreadful past, including his PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). An eye opening. A new beginning for the American dream.

 

4. “Eat with Me”

4. “Eat with Me” This movie will get you “In the Mood for Love” much more so than “The Wedding Banquet.” A neglected mother and her aspiring gay son are trying to understand their lives. It’s funny, romantic and above all… well made for a first time filmmaker David Au. The cameo of George Takei (“Star Trek”) is sensational - all actors in this movie are wonderful.

5. "Last Days in Vietnam"

       5. "Last Days in Vietnam" After the marvelous portrait of her mother “Ethel,” Rory Kennedy delivers another powerful documentary about what really happened in the last days of the Vietnam war. It may create a controversy that opens up the Vietnam debate about the people that got killed after the Americans left the country. “Last Days in Vietnam” is presented with newly found stunning archival footage that no one have seen before. 

6. “Dear White People”

        6. “Dear White People” The most talk about film in Sundance that everybody is dying to watch. A radio show broadcaster in campus talks openly about racial issues. Director Justin Simiens’ satiric approach provokes great topics for debates. This is a movie I’m dying to see.   

7. “Los Angeles”

       7. “Los Angeles” Gangs and vengeance. The immigration drama unfolds in a small Zapotec town of Oaxaca, where young Mateo is challenged with money and obsessed with the American dream. Damian John Harper’s directorial debut transcends the gangs related genre in a more modern approach of a “raw reality” lived by many. 

8. “Club Sandwich”

       8. “Club Sandwich” Is a coming of age movie, where a mother and son open up to talk about their sexuality with a great sense of humor. Winner of best director at the San Sebastian Film Festival, Fernando Eimbcke also won the Jury Prize at AFI Fest 2004 for “Duck Season/Temporada de patos.” He also won twice the Ariel (Mexican Oscar) for best picture, one for “Duck Season” and the second one for “Lake Tahoe.” A breeze of fresh air in the new wave of Mexican Cinema.

9. “Echo Park”

        9. “Echo Park” From her rich house in Beverly Hills to a new apartment in the eclectic part of Echo Park, only Sunset Boulevard will connect this confused Sophie wonderfully played by Mamie Gummer, who is making a career of her own. Her mother Maryl Streep must be really proud of her. Sophie will find herself with her new life in a diverse circle of friends of the modest community of Echo Park. Well directed by Amanda Marsalis. Written by Catalina Aguilar Mastretta (daughter of famous Mexican novelist Hector Aguilar Carmín (Morir en el Golfo) and Angeles Mastretta (Arráncame la vida/Tear this heart out)). "Echo Park" is part LA Muse section. A must see.

10. “Inner Demons”

      10. “Inner Demons” This new “Blair Witch Project” of Beverly Hills will get you a good scare. A low budget film that knows how to do “The Craft” and the suspense of “The Conjuring.” I love this scary movie, a movie that really will make you "to die for" at Los Angeles Film Festival.