Director-writer Nicki Micheaux’s “Summer of Violence,” the festival’s Centerpiece Film, won Best Picture at the 15th annual DTLA Film Festival. Rosemary Rodriguez, the director of the festival’s Opening Night Film, “Hail Mary,” was named Best Director, and the two films tied for Audience Favorite Award. “It’s Basic” by Marc Levin took the Best Documentary award.
Florencia Krochik’s The Rest of Us, a feature documentary about DACA kids shot over a decade, won Best Picture at the 13th DTLA Film Festival. Other award winners included director Martin Torrez’ “The Great American Low Rider Tradition,” a feature documentary about the Lowrider culture of East Los Angeles, which took the Audience Favorite Award, and Sophie Galibert, named Best Director for “Cherry,” a narrative dramedy that tackles the hot-button topic of abortion.
The 13th annual DTLA Film Festival, which is set to run from September 14th – 18th at Regal L.A. LIVE, announced its full lineup of 112 titles including 36 features and 76 short films.
The 11th annual DTLA Film Festival, announced its award winners for 2019, with PUSHOUT: THE CRIMINALIZATION OF BLACK GIRLS IN SCHOOLS, directed by Jacoba Atlas winning the Audience Favorite Award. Other award winners include AMERICAN WOMAN Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress; QT8: THE FIRST EIGHT for Best Director and Best Documentary and a Special Remembrance Award for Robert Forster; JOSIE & JACK picked up Best Screenplay and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for William Fichtner; and Hong Chau has won Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in AMERICAN WOMAN.
The immersive documentary feature film Indirect Actions from award-winning director Maranatha Hay and producer Ryan Moore will World Premiere at the Downtown LA Film Festival.
“QT8: Quentin Tarantino The First Eight,” a documentary that focuses on the first 21 years of Quentin Tarantino’s career and includes interviews with frequent collaborators: including Zoë Bell, Bruce Dern, Robert Forster, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Diane Kruger, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Eli Roth, Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, Christoph Waltz, amongst others, will open this year’s 11th annual DTLA Film Festival.
Surprise Me[/caption]
Surprise Me!, the first romantic comedy written, directed and produced by Chicago native Nancy Goodman, is about a surprise party planner, Genie, (Fiona Gubelmann) who hates surprises. The film will have its Los Angeles theatrical premiere screening at the DTLA Film Festival on Wednesday, October 17, 9:00 pm at the Regal LA Live, 1000 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015.
In the film, featured in the Chicago Tribune, InMag.com and Now You Know Events.com, Genie is hired by an anonymous Hollywood producer to throw a surprise wedding for his girlfriend. Genie must get the bride down the aisle without knowing she’s the bride.
The movie follows event planner, Genie and the men in her life: her business partner (Steven, played by LaShawn Banks), her best friend (Danny, played by Jonathan Bennett) and her boyfriend (Jeff, played by Sean Faris).
Throughout the film, twists and turns lead to a surprise subplot that looks at Genie and her relationships as they evolve, unearthing painful triggers from her past. Cereal and cookies summon her in the night. We watch Genie learn to use cravings as a radar detector for feelings she is not aware of. They lead her to a truth but what is it? SURPRISE!
Goodman who calls the film “a romantic comedy diet” hopes it will help to start a conversation about what is behind a woman’s obsession with food and diets. Goodman sees the movie, which is based on her book of the same name, as her crusade to help women find their voice by turning their focus to their feelings, strength, joy, goals, and find happiness within.
“This year’s film festival has a theme of women’s empowerment, so Nancy Goodman’s status as a triple-threat creative force (producer, screenwriter, director) seems like an especially good fit,” said DTLA Festival Director, Greg Ptacek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIORerKGXhU
“Waterlily Tiger,” a new psychological thriller from director-writer-actress Melora Walters will make its Los Angeles theatrical premiere screening as the Opening Night Film of the 10th annual DTLA Film Festival. The film stars Robert Le Gros, Mira Sorvino, Stacey Oristano, Christopher Backus, Steven Swadling and Dominic Monaghan.
With the addition of “Waterlily Jaguar,” the 2018 festival will screen 30 new feature films of all genres, and all making their Los Angeles theatrical premieres with 68% by women directors. As well, the festival is screening 77 short-form content films and videos, including separate programs for TV pilots and web series episodes with an emphasis on diversity. The festival also launches this year Immersive, its showcase of the latest in AR, VR and Hyper-Reality experiences.
“We’re so proud to have the opportunity to present as our Opening Night film Melora’s directorial debut. Audiences have seen her work as an actor in films like ‘Boogie Nights,’ ‘Magnolia’ and ‘Venom.’ Now we all get to delight in her work as a creative force behind the camera,“ says Karolyne Sosa, Director of Programming.
In the film Bob Price (LeGros), a famous novelist known for his “airport” best-sellers, seeks to write something more meaningful for his new book. But his quest to pen a magnum opus sends him tumbling down a spiral of obsession that may leave the relationships he has already forged in shambles, including his marriage to Helen (Sorvino).
The film will screen at 7 pm on Wed., Oct. 17th at Regal L.A. LIVE , The 10th annual DTLA Film Festival runs October 17 to 21, 2018 at Regal L.A. LIVE, Hotel Figueroa and venues throughout burgeoning downtown Los Angeles.
image via Twitter
AKEDA (The Binding)[/caption]
The DTLA Film Festival revealed the short form content programming at the upcoming 10th edition of the festival, consisting of 77 short films, TV pilots and web series episodes.
Anchoring the festival’s short film content programming are the short films series, curated by Robert Torres ”Emerging Artists,” “Queer Expressions,” “Our Modern World,” “Strange Encounters,” “Spotlight on Latin Shorts” and “DTLA Shorts.” Sosa curated three other series of shorts program under the banner of “L.A. Artists,” which showcases local LA talent.
Rounding out the short-form content are programs devoted to new and established web series and to TV pilots, both with a focus on women and people of color. Monica Jones curated the TV web series; Jade Jenise Dixon and Suki Ramirez curated the TV pilots series.
The 10th annual DTLA Film Festival takes place October 17 to 21 at Regal L.A. LIVE and venues throughout downtown Los Angeles.
A complete list of short-form content screening at the festival follows:
Octavio Is Dead![/caption]
The 10th DTLA Film Festival, taking place October 17 to 21, announced today the 11 documentary and 17 narrative feature-length movies in the 2018 line-up, under the of women’s empowerment, a nod to the #metoo and #timesup movements. In keeping with the theme, 18 of the 27 (65%) of the new feature films screening at the festival are by women directors.
In separate ceremonies, Rosanna Arquette and Malcolm McDowell are to be honored with the festival’s Independent Film Pioneer Award for their body of work in independent cinema. Arquette appears in two films in competition at the festival. She stars in Amanda Sthers’ “Holy Lands” as a matriarch attempting to hold her family together even as she must confront her own mortality. The film, co-starring James Caan, Tom Hollander and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, will screen as the festival Centerpiece presentation. Arquette also co-stars in Sook-Yin Lee’s “Octavio Is Dead!” a contemporary ghost story. In a career spanning four decades, Arquette has appeared in many signature roles, including “Desperately Seeking Susan” (1985), for which she earned a Best Actress Golden Globe Nomination, “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “After Hours” (1985) and “The Whole Nine Yards” (2000). Over the past year, she has become a public face of the #metoo movement.
McDowell stars in the festival’s Los Angeles premiere screening of director Kayla Tabish’s “Culture of Fear,”a dystopian suspense thriller. Forever known for his iconic starring role as Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange” (1971), he would go onto star in “O Lucky Man” (1973), based on his concept and the script that he co-wrote, Paul Schrader’s “Cat People” (1982), “The Caller” (1987) “Gangster No. 1” (2000), Robert Altman’s “The Company (2003), “The Employer” (2013) and literally dozens of other independent and studios releases spanning six decades.
In the festival’s tradition of presenting an archival movie to conclude the festival, this year’s Closing Night Film will be a special 20th anniversary screening of director Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”(1998) with appearances by the cast and crew.
In “A Tuba To Cuba” filmmaker T.G. Herrington profiles a cultural institution, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans, as they journey to Cuba in search of musical camaraderie and historical root. In “Underdogs,”first-time director Téo Frank also is in search of musical origins but with the focus on hip-hop, as he travels from his native Paris to New York. Hip hop plays another leading role in Sam Bathrick’s “16 Bars,”the third documentary in the festival’s music series. The film follows three inmates as they collaborate with Grammy -Award-winning artist Speech of Arrested Development, discovering painful elements of their past in the process.
Three inmates are also the subject of Tamara Perkins’ inspirational documentary “Life After Life”as they set out to prove their success on the other side. The theme of overcoming challenges permeates two films about veterans. In “Surviving Home,” co-directors Jillian Moul and Matthew Moul document the lives of four generations of warriors after returning from war. In Anita Sugimura Holsapple’s “Battlefield Home – Breaking The Silence,”a Vietnam era military child exposes the unflinching impact of war on family dynamics.
A battle of another kind is the subject of filmmakers Tricia Russo’s and Craig E. Shapiro’s “Love Always, Mom,”an inspirational documentary about a stage-4 cancer survivor’s journey to build a family after diagnosis. Family is also the focus of Ensar Altay “Guardian of the Angels,”a documentary profile of a widower who continues to find his wife’s love in his care of their child with special needs. In co-directors Liza Meak’s and Kathryn Basiji’s documentary “The Edge of Success,”it’s youth who take matters into their own hands when their high school is plagued by suicide clusters.
Social justice is manifested in myriad ways in fiction and nonfiction films screening at the festival. In Sally Colón-Petree’s documentary “Women Like Us,”three American women are inspired by the powerful women they encounter in Kenya, who against all odds are successfully confronting a host of social injustices from female genital mutilation to child prostitution. In “Give Us This Day”co-directors Michael Zimbalist and Jeff Zimbalist track a year in East St. Louis, the city with the highest homicide rate in the United States. Told from the perspectives of both police officers and residents, a community plagued by gun violence experiences complex challenges, heartbreak and hope.
Also screening at the festival are two dramas that tackle social injustice. In Laura Somers’ “Rich Kids,”economic class divide is the backdrop as a group of teens from a low-income community break into a mansion to enjoy the good life if only for a day. Class divides also figures into the theme of Collin Schiffli’s dramatic feature “All Creatures Here Below,”about a destitute couple struggling to find refuge for themselves and a stolen infant.”
The impact of crime is explored in Wes Miller’s “River Runs Red,”about a hardened detective (John Cusack) and a grieving father (George Lopez) who take the law into their own hands when police violence spirals out of control. Taye Diggs co-stars. Jay Francisco Lopez’s “Love, Cecy”is based on a true crime story of a promising high school student whose brutal murder was chronicled by the media nationwide. In Richard Levien’s “Collisions,”a 12-year-old must turn detective when she returns home with her younger brother to find their house ransacked and their immigrant mother missing.
Searching for a lost loved one is also the theme of Ilana Rein’s suspenseful “Perception,” the story of a successful businessman who comes to believe that a small-time psychic has the power to reconnect with his dead wife. Psychological thrills freefall in Angela Matemotja’s “Elevate,” a set of intertwining stories about people trapped in elevators who must face their greatest fears. In Amanda Kramer’s “Paris Window,” adult siblings Julian and Sunny are caught in a trap of their own making as they maneuver hallucinatory paranoia and sinister conspiracies in their otherwise lovely pied-à-terre.
Comedy and drama blur in several films screening at the festival. Director Sean McGinly uses a light touch to explore profound questions about life, love, friendship and family in “Silver Lake.”Wendy McColm’s “Birds Without Feathers”also navigates the shoals of human connections in her black comedy about six broken individuals on their quest for love. Nancy Goodman’s rom-com “Surprise Me”is a seemingly light-hearted story of an event planner but with a darker undercurrent about eating disorders. Jean Lee throws cautionto the wind in her absurdist comedy “Original Sin,”which follows the consequences to the marriage of a respectable couple when an enfant terrible artist pays a visit.
Lines blur as well in Joy Shannon’s genre-bending “My Dead Selfie,”a ghostly horror story that tackles head-on issues of racism and racial identity in America. In Anne-Sophie’s “Ballet Blanc,” the innocence of childhood reveals itself as a bloody terror in a unsuspecting small town.
The DTLA Film Festival announced the 2018 dates for its 10th anniversary edition, and will take place October 17 to 21, 2018. The five-day event, scheduled for Regal L.A. LIVE and venues throughout downtown Los Angeles, is expected to screen more than 100 films of all genres from around world.
With this announcement, the festival’s call for entries has officially begun. Submissions are now open, and filmmakers are invited to register their films of all genres online. Details are available on the festival’s website.
Founded in 2008, DTLA Film Festival has become the single largest single film event in the historic center of Los Angeles. Over the past decade the festival has presented more than a thousand features and shorts, including narrative, documentary, experimental films and most recently, web series.
“Over the past 10 years DTLA has become the new creative nexus of the Entertainment Capital of the World, and we’re thrilled to have been a foundational part of its thriving cultural landscape. We take our diversity mission very seriously, and will continue to strive vigorously to reflect this mandate in all aspects of our programming, during this next year and throughout the coming decade,” said festival director Greg Ptacek.
A Thousand Junkies[/caption]
A Thousand Junkies, Tommy Swerdlow’s bittersweet dark comedy about a day in the life of three Los Angeles addicts — won this year’s top prize, Best Picture at the 2017 DTLA Film Festival.
Best Director for documentary feature was awarded to Miranda Bailey for The Pathological Optimist about the controversial vaccine researcher Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Adam Cushman was awarded Best Director for Restraint, his narrative feature about the dark side of suburbia.
The Best Documentary feature award was given to The Work, a powerful and poignant look at a new therapy changing the lives of convicts at Folsom Prison. The film, directed by Jairus Mcleary, will be released theatrically by The Orchard.
Top acting awards went to Sophia Mitria Schloss for Lane 1974 and Charlie Tahan for Super Dark Times.
Other top prizes announced this evening were Best Screenplay for Zach’s Brown contemporary drama Hard Surfaces, Best Short Film for Reed Van Dyk’s Dekalb Elementary, Best Editing to Carl Ambrose and Francisco Bello for their work on the psychological thriller Most Beautiful Island, and Best Cinematography to Luis Montalvo and Carlos Rossini for the atmospheric documentary The Cloud Forest.
The following special prizes were also announced: Jury Prize for Creative Vision to Art Jones for his drama Forbidden Cuba; Female Pioneer Award to Iranian director Shiva Sanjari for her documentary biopic Here The Seats Are Vacant, and actor Leo Ramsey for his Breakthrough Performance in the contemporary coming-of-age story Blue Line Station.
The festival’s Audience Favorite Award was a tie, given to both Dare To Be Different, director Ellen Goldfarb’s nostalgic look back at influential Eighties radio station WLIR, and The Dating Project, Jonathan Cipiti’s exploration of courtship in the digital age.