Academy Award nominated and Film Independent Spirit Award winning filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right, High Art) has been named guest director of the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival, which takes place June 11–19. Past guest directors include David O.Russell, Kathryn Bigelow, William Friedkin, Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón.
Cholodenko’s debut film High Art was nominated for both Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards in 1999. She followed that with Laurel Canyon, The Kids Are All Right, and work in television including Hung, Six Feet Under, The L-Word and the Showtime feature Cavedweller. Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right opened the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival and went on to earn a Best Director nomination and a win for Best Screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards in 2011. The film also earned four Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, and won two Golden Globes including Best Picture (comedy) and Best Actress (comedy) for Annette Bening. Cholodenko is currently in postproduction on Olive Kitteridge, the four-part miniseries she recently directed for HBO and Playtone, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The series stars Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Bill Murray, John Gallagher Jr. and Zoe Kazan among others. Cholodenko has served as an Adjunct Professor of Film at Columbia University, an advisor for the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting Labs in Park City, Utah and Oaxaca, Mexico and is currently on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Spirit of Independence Award will be given to Tom Bernard and Michael Barker for their over 20-year tenure as co-heads of Sony Pictures Classics. Over the past two decades, Tom and Michael have brought over 350 independent films to the public, garnering a combined 36 Film Independent Spirit Award and 32 Academy Award wins (28 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and 140 Academy Award nominations (114 at Sony Pictures Classics), establishing themselves as one of the longest running and most successful partnerships in independent film. They will discuss their work with Festival Artistic Director David Ansen and choose a film to screen from their extensive catalogue.
The Festival will present a series of Master Classes inviting acclaimed film artists to take part in moderated conversations that delve deeply into the creative process. Launching the series is Academy Award winning musician/producer/composer Atticus Ross, who will perform an original electronic soundscape created just for the Festival and discuss his creative process of scoring films such as The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with Elvis Mitchell. Special support is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Master Classes.
The Festival’s annual celebration of women’s achievements in film will focus on Women Who Call the Shots: Women Directors and Showrunners. The event consists of a panel of esteemed directors and showrunners including Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said), Marta Kauffman (Friends) and Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball), who will share with Festival audiences their process and progress as women at the helm.
Programmed as part of LA Muse is a special comedic journey with Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, the stars of Key & Peele, who will engage in a free-wheeling conversation moderated by Elvis Mitchell. The evening will include the duo sharing clips of the films that have influenced their irreverent comedic style.
