The Los Angeles Film Festival just moved to a fall slot this year, and now Film Independent says it is ending the fest after 18 years and will replace it with “year-round events aimed at building community and broadening its support of visual storytellers.” The nonprofit arts organization also will eliminate three…

Vertical Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Ashes in the Snow, the narrative directorial debut of Marius Markevicius that stars Bel Powley. The coming-of-age drama set in 1941 during Stalin's brutal dismantling of the Baltic region just had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Vertical…

The newest of the fall festivals wraps up today, and the Los Angeles Film Festival has announced Tom Shadyac’s powerful and inspiring true story Brian Banks as winner of its Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film and the acclaimed Stuntman as Audience Award choice winner for Best Documentary Feature. As the Toronto…

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s the first look at American Dreamer, the new thriller directed by London Town helmer Derrick Borte and starring Jim Gaffigan. The pic from Storyland Pictures is having its world premiere Thursday at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Gaffigan, who made his bones as a stand-up comic, takes another jump…

EXCLUSIVE: Peter Bogdanovich’s The Great Buster: A Celebration, his documentary about movie pioneer Buster Keaton, is winding its was from a world premiere at Telluride and then Venice before landing this week at the place where Keaton plied his trade: Hollywood. The pic is set to screen Sunday afternoon in the Buzz…

EXCLUSIVE: Cinema Libre Studio has acquired rights to The Advocates, Rémi Kessler’s documentary focusing on the growing homeless crisis in Los Angeles. The deal comes as the pic has its world premiere Saturday in the LA Muse section of the Los Angeles Film Festival. The film will screen next month at the Woodstock…

Coming in the shadow of the big Oscar season-opening fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto, September squeezes in a new contender on the circuit as the Los Angeles Film Festival takes a big roll of the dice and moves from its longtime June date to the heart of the awards season. It kicked off last…

EXCLUSIVE: Everyone’s had those awkward family dinners where the discussion turns uncomfortable, if not downright unpleasant. That’s certainly what happens in this clip from Simple Wedding, a comedy directed by Sara Zandieh and starring and executive produced by Rita Wilson, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Tara Grammy that…

EXCLUSIVE: The Los Angeles Film Festival is on the move from June to this month, where it opens on Thursday with the world premiere of the music documentary Echo in the Canyon. Over the course of the next week, the festival will be offering an array of cinematic programming of all kinds including several more world…

The Oath, the Roadside Attractions holiday comedy directed by and starring Ike Barinholtz and co-starring Tiffany Haddish, will have its world premiere at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival. The film will screen September 25 at ArcLight Hollywood and was one of four gala screenings unveiled today by LAFF along with…

EXCLUSIVE: Brainstorm Media has acquired rights to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, writer-director Casey Wilder Mott's feature helming debut that premiered this year at the Los Angeles Film Festival. A spring 2018 theatrical release in multiple markets is planned, followed by a summer VOD bow. Mott’s adaption of…

The Los Angeles Film Festival said today that beginning next year the fest will take place in September, setting itself up to be involved in the heated and crowded fall festival season that includes the Telluride, Venice, Toronto and New York film fests. The L.A. fest had been held in June. The fest, run by Film…