Home-court advantage may be a big deal for the Lakers – but for the film festival that kicks off on Thursday night in downtown Los Angeles, staging a movie event in the home city to the entertainment industry is a double-edged sword.
Certainly, the Los Angeles Film Festival has access to talent, which has helped it attract the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Ben Affleck, Roger Corman and the premieres of “Despicable Me” (photo below) and “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.”
But unlike, say, the Sundance, Cannes or Telluride festivals, it also faces an audience that isn’t in town just to attend the festival; instead, most patrons will see the movies after they get off work, when it takes some impetus to lure movie-sated Angelenos downtown.
“This is not to put down the challenges of mounting a festival in a remote location, because you’ve got to get them there in the first place,” says festival director Rebecca Yeldham. “But once you do get them there, they’re captive. And they’re very happy to get up at 8 in the morning to see an obscure silent film that has been discovered in somebody’s vault in New Zealand.
“In L.A., they’re not captive. We have to earn their participation every single day.”
LAFF, which has been run by Film Independent (the organization that also presents the Spirit Awards) since 2000, faces other challenges as well. It takes place a couple of months too early to be a prime showcase for awards-season movies, while it doesn’t have the history as a film market that might attract a large contingent of buyers.
So what is it? It’s a little bit indie, a little bit mainstream; it’s for cineastes who want to see 50-year-old movies from obscure Argentinian director Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, and for teenage girls who want to scream as Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner walk the red carpet at the “Eclipse” premiere, which is being hosted by LAFF without being an official festival selection.
It’s not a film market, but it’ll teach filmmakers how to market and distribute their films; it’s not an awards-season showcase, but it has offered free tickets to Academy members who want to see films in the dramatic, documentary or international sections.
And while that diversity may be confusing, it is exactly the point, say Yeldham and Film Independent’s executive director, Dawn Hudson.
“Our appetite continues to grow, but the trajectory this festival is on is one that we very much dreamed of from the time we took it over 10 years ago,” says Hudson. “We wanted a festival that represents all of Los Angeles, and that is accessible to the people of Los Angeles.”
“We really envisioned this as a community film festival,” she adds. “And it just so happens that this community is a community of very sophisticated filmgoers with a very deep and wide knowledge and love of film.”
Adds Yeldham, who was recruited to run the festival last year, “I have a very strong idea of what we’re doing here.
