Director Stéphane Lafleur’s Familiar Ground won the Los Angeles Film Festival’s Narrative Award while directors Beverly Kopf and Bobbie Birleffi’s Wish Me Away took the Documentary Award. The Narrative and Documentary Awards are the top two juried awards of the festival, each carrying an unrestricted $15,000 cash prize, funded by Film Independent, for the winning film’s director(s). A non-profit arts organization, Film Independent produces the L.A. Film Festival. This year the 17th annual festival ran in downtown Los Angeles from June 16-26.
Familiar Ground–which made its North American premiere at the festival–is a droll, deadpan comedy from snowbound Quebec which features an unhappy brother and sister whose fates seem to be known by a mysterious Man From the Future. Not too far in the future though–just next September.
Meanwhile Wish Me Away, which had its worldwide debut at the L.A. Fest, chronicles the heart-wrenching decision of Nashville singing star Chely Wright to come out of the closet despite the potentially crushing response from the industry and her fans.
The award for Best Performance in the Narrative Competition went to Amber Sealey, Kent Osborne, Amanda Street, and Gabriel Diamond for their performances in Amber Sealey’s How to Cheat. Given to an actor or actors from an official selection in the Narrative Competition, this is the eighth year the award has been given at the Festival.
Short but sweet
For the first time, the Los Angeles Film Festival awarded an unrestricted $5,000 cash prize to each short film category winner.
The award for Best Narrative Short Film went to Saba Riazi’s The Wind Is Blowing on My Street.
The award for Best Documentary Short Film went to Susan Koenen’s I Am a Girl!.
And Mikey Please’s The Eagleman Stag won the award for Best Animated Short Film. The Eagleman Stag also recently earned Please a slot in Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors’ Showcase at Cannes (SHOOTonline, 6/23). Please is repped for spots and branded content by Agile Films, London.
Audience favorites
The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Attack the Block, directed by Joe Cornish.
The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, directed by Michael Rapaport.
Asif Kapadia’s Senna won the Audience Award for Best International Feature.
The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to Blind Date, directed by Joe Rosen.
And “Can’t Shake This Feeling,” directed by The General Assembly’s Adam Littke, Ryan McNeill, and Adam Willis won the Audience Award for Best Music Video for Grum. This music clip earlier this month earned The General Assembly inclusion in the aforementioned Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase. (McNeill has since left The General Assembly and is repped by More Media. The General Assembly continues to be handled for spots and branded content by Skin Flicks in the U.K. and Townhall stateside.
Conversations
In addition to assorted screenings and film debuts, the Los Angeles Film Festival held Conversations with James Franco, Julie Taymor, Jack Black, and Shirley MacLaine, with panelists and moderators including Diablo Cody, Dustin Lance Black, Ruben Fleischer, Robert Ben Garant, Andy Garcia, Rachael Harris, Quincy Jones, Richard Kelly, Thomas Lennon, Derek Luke, Frank Pierson, David Milch, Thomas Newman, Philip Noyce, and Jason Ritter.
Guillermo del Toro was this year’s guest director of the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival. In his role as guest director, del Toro presented Pupi Avati’s The Arcane Enchanter, a rarely seen Italian horror film that has inspired his work. Erykah Badu and Daniele Luppi served as this year’s Artists in Residence. As Artists in Residence, each programmed an event that inspired their work. Grammy Award-winning musician Badu selected Ricky Gervais’ The Invention of Lying, followed by a conversation. Composer Luppi selected Sergio Corbucci’s Navajo Joe, followed by a conversation about movies and music.
“Overnight Success” Has Been More Than A Decade In The Making For Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson
Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson, two of the stars of Netflix's whodunit "The Perfect Couple," have news for you if you want to call them breakouts: They've been working in this business for more than a decade.
Fahy made her TV debut in 2009 in an episode of "Gossip Girl." Hewson's first big film role was in 2011's "This Must Be the Place." They do concede, however, that it's recent TV roles — "The White Lotus" for Fahy and "Bad Sisters" for Hewson — that have led to new frontiers of opportunity.
Susanne Bier, who directed "The Perfect Couple," says both Fahy and Hewson are "going to be big stars."
"They certainly have proper, profound star quality, Both of them in very different ways," Bier says. "Both are incredibly creative, incredibly smart, and also have a impressive insight as to who they are. You can be a great actor or actress and not necessarily really know who you are yourself. And they do."
Hewson, 33, whose dad is U2 front man Bono, may have grown up in a famous family but she's now in demand in her own right. She will next be seen in a second season of "Bad Sisters, " out in November. She's in Noah Baumbach's next film, alongside Adam Sandler, George Clooney and Riley Keough. She's also been cast in Steven Spielberg's next production and is set to star opposite Murray Bartlett in a racing series for Hulu.
Fahy, 34, is in production on a limited series with Julianne Moore and Milly Alcock called "Sirens," written by Molly Smith Metzler ("Maid") for Netflix. She also has two films in the can with Josh O'Connor ("The Crown," "Challengers") and Brandon Sklenar ("It Ends With Us").
The two actors spoke candidly about this phase of their careers. This interview has been condensed for clarity and... Read More