AFI FEST Party Pictures: Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie Shine in Hollywood (Updating Photos)

AFI Fest presented by Audi brings “The 33,” “Concussion,” “The Big Short,” and “Where to Invade Next.” Angelina Jolie unveiled “By the Sea” on Nov. 5, opening night.

Hey AFI, it’s Ryan Gosling. 

To end eight nights of AFI Fest presented by Audi’s premieres that heavily featured individual stars, the ensemble cast of Adam McKay and Paramount’s 2008 mortgage meltdown drama/comedy “The Big Short” took over the TCL Chinese on Thursday night: Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Steve Carell. 

Bale and Carell have no scenes together, so this could have been the first time they met. It was not to be a Brad Pitt bookend on the Hanukkah of Hollywood festivals (8 nights), as although Pitt and Angie opened the fest with “By the Sea”, he was not available to come for his starring turn in the closing night film.

Sarah Roberts with husband Finn Wittrock, whose character is pejoratively termed by a Wall Street Journal reporter character to have a “garage band hedge fund” ($30 million) while sniffing out the impending home mortgage meltdown. (P.S. He’s great in the film.)

Writer-director Adam McKay mashed up Tarantino, Sorkin, and Bale’s own Patrick Bateman in a slick, adrenalized screenplay that’s candy-coated medicine. Most at the after party said some variation of “I feel smarter, but I’m not entirely 100% sure I understand what happened.”

Maybe they should ask co-screenwriter Michael Lewis (right), who also  wrote the underlying book. Jeremy Kleiner joined Lewis at the Roosevelt after party.

Byron Mann goes toe-to-toe with Steve Carell in a crucial scene set at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, where he is introduced as a “gold plated a–hole.” He delivers in this fulcrum point in the plot, and on Thursday, festival host Audi delivered him, along with all the stars, to the premiere. After the screening, I spotted Mann in the Audi Sky Lounge at the Roosevelt, where invitees ate Wall St. cocktail party food, like oysters, crab claws, and poke tuna sliders.  

Brad Grey and Paramount are planning a Manhattan premiere before the movie opens on December 11. 

AFI Fest director Jacqueline Lyanga with Gosling on Thursday night. 

Earlier in the week, in addition to moderating panels with Will Smith, and introducing nearly all the films she selected, Lyanga hung backstage with Johnny Depp and “Black Mass” director Scott Cooper. Lyanga deserves, and is going, on an international vacation shortly.

Will Smith watched five autopsies with Dr. Bennet Omalu, the man at the center of Sony’s “Concussion” drama, but admitted at the world premiere that the one personality quirk he could not adopt from the animated researcher and C.T.E. pioneer was his laugh. 

Bob Costas, who delivers essays on NFL crises as part of his role on the ratings champion “Sunday Night Football,” met “Concussion” writer/director Peter Landesman at the Chinese Theatre premiere on Tuesday night, November 10.

During the cheers and laughs for “Concussion”, Ewan McGregor was upstairs at the smaller TCL Chinese 6 talking up Broad Green’s faith film “Last Days in the Desert.” 

A peek inside the Roosevelt after parties, where Sony had their own private “Concussion” bash poolside. Three NFL widows (including Junior Seau’s wife and daughter) attended Tuesday’s event.

Four of the rescued Chilean miners joined the celebration for “The 33” at AFI Fest on Monday night. At the Roosevelt after party, miners Luis Urzua (the last man to come up) and Mario Gomez huddled up with lead Antonio Banderas, who plays Mario Sepulveda.

A replica of the Fenix capsule that brought the 33 miners to the surface five years ago planted on the terrace in front of the Chinese theater.   

“The 33’s” Juliette Binoche and Cote Del Pablo.

Lou Diamond Phillips and producer Mike Medavoy. Warner Bros. releases “The 33” this Friday.

Saoirse Ronan (“Brooklyn”), Sarah Silverman (“I Smile Back”), and Olivia Wilde (“Meadowlands”) spent their Sunday afternoon at the “Indie Contenders Roundtable,” one of several AFI awards season crossovers.

Blythe Danner and TV Academy Governor Lily Tomlin visit the Roosevelt for the Indie Contenders event.

Saoirse Ronan, Blythe Danner, Jason Segel, Olivia Wilde, Lily Tomlin, writer Ramin Bahrani and Sarah Silverman by the Roosevelt pool.

Michael Moore‘s “Where to Invade Next” played well at the Egyptian on Saturday night, Nov. 7.  Producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal joined the documentarian on stage.

Angelina Jolie Pitt with NBCUniversal Vice Chair Ron Meyer on opening night. Universal’s limited release begins on Nov. 13.  

“Sicario” star Benicio Del Toro held “a conversation” at the Egyptian Theatre on Saturday. The AFI previously recognized Del Toro’s “The Usual Suspects” with a spot on their list of “Top 100 Heroes and Villains” of the past 100 years. 

Del Toro with AFI FEST festival director Jacqueline Lyanga.

Pitt worked the Hollywood Boulevard autograph crowd.

Universal chairwoman Donna Langley with the Pitts at the Audi hosted festival, where Fiji water is a new partner this year.

The Dolby Theatre is home to both AFI FEST and the Oscars. AFI President Bob Gazzale on the big stage on opening night.

Gena Rowlands checks in to see “By the Sea.”

A few blocks east down Hollywood Boulevard, the Egyptian is also hosting AFI screenings. 

Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland greets Richard Chamberlain at the “Where to Invade Next” screening, which also drew Sam Waterston.

The hotest real estate at the Roosevelt after parties is the Audi Skylounge.