H'wood Attends These Local Film Festivals

cover.jpgThere's more to indie marketing than just Sundance and Toronto. Just because that rotten actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the state's governor is no reason not to enter or attend one of Southern California's many film festivals. Sponsored by corporate donors and produced by local nonprofit film societies and volunteers, these usually grassroots events have a better-than-average chance of getting your indie or documentary seen by people who matter in the motion picture industry. Sure, A-list movie stars and directors sometimes show up, but so do development people and studio executives and top tier agents if for no other reason than that they live nearby. Here are 14 local film festivals listed according to the calendar and touted by local filmmaker David Geffner in the latest Westways magazine.

1. Palm Springs International Film Festival (early January): launched in 1990 by the late Sonny Bono, this desert fest 2 1/2-hours outside LA is held at multiple venues in the city of Palm Springs. Lately, big name actors have attended the Gala Awards because of timing so close to Oscars. (A healthy percentage of Academy voters live out here.) Entries include 250 films from 74 countries.

2. Santa Barbara International Film Festival (late January): Everything's in walking proximity. A lot of films here go on to earn Oscar nods. Big-name actor always honored. Top thesps also hold audience conversations.

cover2.jpg3. Pan African Film & Arts Festival (mid-February): Global event showcases about 150 films about people of African descent. Runs during Black History Month in the U.S. based at the Magic Johnson Theaters and the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles.

4. The Other Venice Film Festival (March 15-18): Showcases local work from the eclectic Venice Beach arts and music scene in LA. Lots of celebs and dealmaking.

5. Malibu Film Festival (April 13-16): Indies, shorts and documentaries debut from around the world. A lot of major players who live in the neighborhood stop by. (more...)

Since It's Tuesday, More Sundance Deals

ImageMore deals from Sundance...

  • Weinstein Co. and Fox Searchlight bought La Misma Luna for $5 mil.
  • Weapons sold to After Dark, the folks who gave you American Haunting.

    •    Details later.

    Deals, Deals & More Sundance Deals...

  • Waitress sold to Peter Rice's Fox Searchlight. Studio puts price at $4 million Imageworldwide (but I heard $5 mil). Starring Keri Russell, written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelley. Searchlight outbid Miramax, Focus among other distribs for this sweet pic.
  • Fox Searchlight also shelled out $4 mil for worldwide rights to Manhattan-set modern horror story about a well-to-do family from George Ratliff, Joshua.
  • Clubland, called a dramedy, sold to Warner Independent Pictures president for $4 mil for U.S., Canadian, UK and German rights. Stars Brenda Blethyn, directed by Cherie Nowlan and written by Keith Thompson.
  • In the Shadow of the Moon documentary by David Sington sold to ThinkFilm which edged out WIP and others with bid for $2 mil. That includes all North American rights except TV. Doc uses rarely seen NASA footage from Apollo mission and is said to have James Cameron-like cool special effects.
  • Magnolia Pictures coughed up mid-six figures for documentary Crazy Love from PR bigwig Dan Klores (photo, right) for all rights excluding TV. Pic is about a famous acid-throwing incident involving a woman and a spurned lover who then married when he was released from prison. The couple even made a Sundance appearance.
  • There was a rumor that the very violent Weapons from Adam Bhala Lough about a gun-toting youth culture and its brutal senseless killings sold to Sony. But maybe not.
  • Teen horror Teeth, marking Mitchell Lichtenstein's coming-of-age feature debut about a virgin with labial incisors, sold to Lionsgate and The Weinstein Co. on Sunday for $1 mil.
  • My Kid Could Paint That, a child prodigy documentary, sold to Sony Classics cusack.jpgfor $2 mil. TV rights already snapped up by Discovery and A&E before sale.
  • Grace Is Gone sold to The Weinstein Company for $4 million worldwide after hard-fought seven hours of bidding that didn't end until 5 a.m. Starring John Cusack (photo, left, who sat through most of the negotiating), written and directed by first-timer James Strouse about a father whose wife is killed in Iraq.

    • Sundance Suckering Still The Story

    sundancefilmfestival.JPGMy old lalogo.gif column, The Sundance Suckers, is as true today as when I wrote it back in 2003. I don't get all aflutter at the mere mention of the Park City film festival like some media. That's because I'm much too cynical. If you accept the premise that the film business is the folly of the filthy rich, then the independent-film business must seem the folly of the stupidly rich. Lore has it that, if a sucker is born every minute, all eventually land in Hollywood — with a detour to Park City during January alongside stars and wannabes (hard to tell them apart beneath those real and fake shearlings). As for financing independent films, it's a case study in pigeon finding. And, in Sundance, birds of a different feather flock together, but they're still birdbrains for putting money into the lame-ass indieprod biz which coughs up a financial hit maybe five times a year. The rest is money-losing art and vanity.

    Link to LA Weekly's Daily Sundance Blog

    I highly recommend the Sundance blog being kept by my LA Weekly colleague, film critic Scott Foundas. Check out his opener stories, and stay tuned for his daily insights. As for me being there, sorry, but I don't do cold. Unless I'm paid to.

     

    2007 Sundance Film Festival Lineup

    Here's the lineup for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival (January 18-28). Brett Morgan's docu Chicago 10 will open the fest. A total 64 films have been selected to compete for the best new work categories. A total 122 feature films were selected, representing 25 countries with nearly 60 first- or second-time feature filmmakers. These were selected from 3,287 feature submissions, up from 2006. Said SDF director Geoffrey Gilmore: "This year’s American Competition reflects a newfound awareness and self-expression that results in an engagement by the work that is both political and personal, a collective voice fueled by a steadfast optimism and hope for the future."