LA Film Festival to premiere Eclipse, Despicable Me

The world premiere of Universal’s 3D CGI animated release Despicable Me featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand and Kristen Wiig will close the event on June 27.

Among the line-up of more than 200 features, shorts and music videos are an invitation-only world premiere of Summit’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (pictured) starring Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, as well as the world premiere of Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism.

Festival director Rebecca Yeldham and artistic director David Ansen have dispensed with a centrepiece screening in favour of a number of gala screenings: Animal Kingdom by David Michod; Cyrusby Jay and Mark Duplass; the world premiere of Mahler On The Couch by Percy and Felix Adlon; the North American premiere of the Latin American portmanteau Revolucion; and Waiting For Superman from Davis Guggenheim.

This year’s narrative and documentary competition has expanded from 13 to 18 films. The nine narrative competition entries are: Dog Sweat(Iran) by Hossein Keshavarz; A Family (Denmark) by Pernille Fischer Christensen; Hello Lonesome by Adam Reid; The New Year by Brett Haley; Of Love And Other Demons (Costa Rica-Colombia) by Hilda Hidalgo; Orly (Germany-France) by Angela Schanelec; Parade (Japan) by Isao Yukisada; Upstate by Katherine Nolfi and Andrew Luis; and The Wolf Knife by Laurel Nakadate.

The nine documentary competition contenders are: Camera, Cameraby Malcolm Murray; Circo (USA-Mexico) by Aaron Schock; One Lucky Elephant by Lisa Leeman; EverydaySunshine: The Story Of Fishbone by Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler; Farewell (Netherlands) by Ditteke Mensink; Life With Murder (Canada) by John Kastner; Make Believe by J Clay Tweel; Vlast by Cathryn Collins; and Where Are You Taking Me? by Kimi Takesue.

The 20-strong International Showcase includes: 1428 (China) by Du Hai-bin; Army Of Crime (France) by Robert Guediguian; Bibliotheque Pascal (Germany-Hungary-England) by Szabolcs Hajdu; Down Terrace (England) by Ben Wheatley; Family Tree (France) by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau; Golden Slumber (Japan) by Yoshihiro Nakamura; La Pivellina (Austria-Italy) by Rainer Frimmel and Tizza Covi; Lebanon (Israel) by Samuel Maoz; and Secrets Of The Tribe (England-Brazil) by Jose Padilha.

Among the Summer Screenings of upcoming releases from the festival circuit are Chris Morris’ jihadi satire Four Lions, Mark Lewis’ documentary Cane Toads: The Conquest, Gareth Edwards’s Monsters, and Claire Denis’ White Material.

A tribute to Argentina’s Leopoldo Torre Nilsson will screen The Fall (1959), The Hand In The Trap (1961), The House Of The Angel (1957), and The Seven Madmen (1973). Last year, Netflix and Film Independent created the national Netflix FIND Your Voice Film Competition and the winning project, Philip G Flores’ The Wheeler Boys, will receive its world premiere at the festival.

“We’ve received tremendous support from the community for our move to downtown and can’t wait to present this rich, diverse programme to audiences,” Yeldham said. “We’ve created a series of highly entertaining, memorable experiences for our film-makers and audiences.”

“It’s been a terrific experience working with the programming team in my first year with the festival, and film-goers are in for a real treat this summer,” Ansen said. “There’s truly something for everyone, whether it’s a comedy for the whole family, a documentary for Star Wars fan boys, or a sidebar of films from an unjustly forgotten and highly-regarded director.”

“The Los Angeles Film Festival is always an amazing time for us because we can build on our year-round work of cultivating the careers of artists and providing them with a unique platform to showcase their films,” Film Independent executive director Dawn Hudson said. “It’s also a fabulous way to bring together the industry, film-makers, and film lovers to celebrate the diverse arts scene that Los Angeles has to offer.”