Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards, Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF), and year-round artist development programs and exhibition events, is bringing the 2010 edition of LAFF to downtown Los Angeles from its prior roost in Westwood, Calif.
LAFF runs from June 17-27 and will encompass venues throughout the City of Los Angeles and be centered at L.A. LIVE. The move is reflective of the LAFF’s continued growth and its efforts to embrace the cultural diversity and energy of Los Angeles. The Festival will present its screenings and events at the new Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE Stadium 14, the REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater), the Downtown Independent, the Soundstage Theatre at the GRAMMY Museum©, JW Marriot Hotel Los Angeles at L.A. Live, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Los Angeles, Orpheum Theatre, and California Plaza. The Festival will also continue its tradition of nighttime screenings at the outdoor John Anson Ford Amphitheater in Hollywood and the Los Angeles Times will again serve as presenting partner, as it has since ’06.
Over the past 16 years, LAFF has grown from being held in one theater with 5,700 attendees to include a sprawling list of event venues that attract more than 85,000 attendees. The Festival moved to Westwood Village in 2006 to accommodate its growing audience, which doubled in the four years it was based there.
“The Festival’s move to downtown Los Angeles allows us a unique opportunity to celebrate the history and future of our City,” said LAFF director Rebecca Yeldham. “Our new location will continue to pave the way for LAFF to realize its potential as an international destination event, and unites our filmmakers and audiences with the diverse arts community that exists downtown.”
More than 200 features, shorts, and music videos from more than 30 countries make up the main body of the Festival. LAFF’s official film selections will be announced in early May.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More