[IMG:L]With a range of films from blockbuster action flicks to small independents, the Los Angeles Film Festival didn’t disappoint this year as fans headed to festival headquarters in Westwood Village. Whether it was Joss Whedon making an unexpected appearance at the close of Buffy the Musical: Once More, With Feeling or Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy greeting guests at a screening of Hawke‘s The Hottest State, surprises were around every corner.
This year’s Target Awards went to Chris Eska’s August Evening, the story of an undocumented worker in Texas and his widowed daughter-in-law who are struggling to keep ties after a family tragedy and Billy the Kid, a film about the struggles and triumphs of a teen in small-town Maine.
Hollywood.com joined festival goers for a series of poolside chats, coffee talks and speaking engagements for a chance to get up close and personal with some of our favorite filmmakers.
[IMG:L]Shock & Awe: New Wave Exploitation with Eli Roth, Jack Hill and Craig Brewer
Roth: “[Religious groups] call me the antichrist specifically. All of my movies have been officially condemned by the Catholic church…people might look to a movie and see the girl chained the radiator and then see the movie and see there’s heart and thoughts, I do think that specifically with Hostel and Hostel II, people get so blinded by the violence that that’s all they see.” (Read story)
[IMG:L]Actors Coffee Talk with Lisa Kudrow and Virginia Madsen
Kudrow: “I’m still worried I’m going to get fired. I’m afraid you are going to send me out of this room. Scott [Prendergast] is here and on the very first day of working on his movie Kabluey we were just chit chatting and he casually asked how I had prepared for the role…I said ‘I don’t do a lot of that’ and then I thought ‘Oh, alright I’m going to get fired.’ Then I did my scene and then he said, ‘Okay, that was good.'” (Read story)
[IMG:L]Directors Coffee Talk with Marc Forster and Paul Haggis
Haggis: “I just know what it was like for me when I was trying to break in in my early ’20s. I don’t know what people get out of it but there’s no way to tell ahead of time. You can say something to someone that’ll just change the direction of their work. You don’t even know what you said. Or you can blather on for hours and just be meaningless but I figure I should take the risk because it’s important.” (Read story)
[IMG:L]Poolside Chat with Don Cheadle and Davis Guggenheim
Guggenheim: “I was there opening night for Fahrenheit 911 and I was clapping and cheering and then I went home, and as I was driving home I felt dirty afterwards. [Michael Moore] is just the opposite [of me], and I am very grateful to him because in many ways he opened up a market for documentaries and he is putting himself out there and he does what he believes. It is not my style.” (Read story)
[IMG:L]Been There, Done That: A Conversation with Mickey Rooney
“There’s a difference between show business and work. Show business isn’t work. You’re honored because something has been given to you by the great maker who says, ‘Do your best.’ Whenever we do our show or we do a picture together or whatever, show business is doing your best and being honored to be a part of it and the people who care enough about you, consider you with kindness, courtesy, pleasantness. It’s a wonderful thing.” (Read story)
[IMG:L]Festival Punk: ‘What We Do Is Secret’ and ‘Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten’
“The secret to the film was the fact that it was finally finished,” West added on his way into the premiere after party at Element Hollywood. Twelve years in the making, the movie was a labor of love for everyone involved and Grossman said the movie was such a success because he “surrounded himself with great people” like his young stars West and Bijou Phillips and surviving band members Pat Smear and Lorna Doom. (Read story)
Filmmakers didn’t just talk the talk, they had to walk the walk too…on the red carpet. Don Cheadle’s drama Talk to Me and Michael Bay‘s Transformers were among films premiering at the festival this year, while the independent community honored their own with the Spirit of Independence Awards.
[IMG:L]‘Talk to Me’ Premiere Photos
Spirit of Independence Awards:
Red Carpet Report
Spirit of Independence Awards Photos
