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Producer was longtime BAFTA LA board member.

Paul Heller, the US producer whose credits included Withnail & I and Enter The Dragon and My Left Foot as executive producer, died on December 28 in Los Angeles. He was 93.

Heller, a longtime board member of BAFTA LA, was born in New York on September 25, 1927, and spent many years in England producing some of his most acclaimed films.

His first feature, the 1962 mental health drama David And Lisa directed by Frank Perry, earned two Oscar nominations for directing and for Eleanor Perry’s adapted screenplay.

Encouraged to pursue his career with gusto, Heller...

Above: Italian 2-foglio for Loves of a Blonde (Miloš Forman, Czechoslovakia, 1965).As the 54th New York Film Festival winds to a close this weekend I thought it would be instructive to look back at its counterpart of 50 years ago. Sadly, for the sake of symmetry, there are no filmmakers straddling both the 1966 and the 2016 editions, though Agnès Varda (88 years old), Jean-Luc Godard (85), Carlos Saura (84) and Jirí Menzel (78)—all of whom had films in the 1966 Nyff—are all still making films, and Milos Forman (84), Ivan Passer (83) and Peter Watkins (80) are all still with us. There are only two filmmakers in the current Nyff who could potentially have been in the 1966 edition and they are Ken Loach (80) and Paul Verhoeven (78). The current Nyff is remarkably youthful—half the filmmakers weren’t even born in 1966 and, with the exception of Loach and Verhoeven, the old guard is now represented by Jim Jarmusch, Pedro Almodóvar,...

Above: Larry Rivers’ poster for the first New York Film Festival.

With the New York Film Festival celebrating its 50th edition next week I thought I’d look back on the very first festival, 49 years ago, in 1963. Whereas this year’s festival has a main slate of 33 films (as well as abundant sidebars) the inaugural event, programmed by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel, had only 21 features and a selection of shorts. The festival opened—on a Tuesday evening, September 10th, 1963—with a now-classic but then ill-received Buñuel, The Extermining Angel, and closed with a film and a director that have been all but forgotten: Dragées au poivre (Sweet and Sour), a French-Italian comedy with an all-star cast, directed by one Jacques Baratier.

Of the 21 selections—handpicked by Roud and Vogel as the year’s best—only six (masterpieces by Buñuel, Ozu, Olmi, Kobayashi, Polanski and Resnais) are currently available on DVD in the Us,...

Above: La pivellina.

The recently wrapped Los Angeles Film Festival succeeded in reinventing itself—a new location in "revitalized" downtown with a new artistic director, David Ansen (the thirty-year veteran critic of Newsweek)—but it produced mixed results. Gone were the kind of established names of world cinema favored by previous artistic director Rachel Rosen, whose final program last year boasted rare works by Wang Bing, Pere Portabella, Miguel Gomes, and many others. Claire Denis was perhaps Laff's only recognized master this year (outside of revivals), and herWhite Material is already secured for distribution.

Instead, Laff emphasized emerging filmmakers and attempted to strike a balance between "popular" and "art house" fare, offering an accessible selection of films from around the globe. Ansen's most interesting choices were the smaller films he championed, such as the Georgian character study Street Days, which he personally introduced and then sat through after some minor projection problems occurred,...

Burt Lancaster in Luchino Visconti‘s The Leopard (top); Marko Zaror in Ernesto Diaz Espinosa‘s Mandrill (upper middle); Elsa Daniel in Leopoldo Torre Nilsson‘s The Fall (lower middle); Jennifer Arnold‘s A Small Act (bottom) Luchino Visconti‘s restored The Leopard, Ernesto Diaz Espinosa‘s Mandrill, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson‘s The Fall, and Jennifer Arnold‘s A Small Act are some of the highlights at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival on Saturday, June 26. Starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and Claudia Cardinale, Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Il Gattopardo / The Leopard (1963) is considered by some to be Visconti’s masterpiece. Set in mid-19th century Sicily, The Leopard explores the foibles of an old-school patriarch (Lancaster) intent on preserving his family’s prestige. An all-around sumptuous production, The Leopard was beautifully shot by Giuseppe Rotunno. (The long ballroom sequence is particularly striking.) Mandrill is described as an...

Interesting directors always lurk in film history's hidden corners and forgotten backwaters for the determined to discover and/or reassess, and this year the Los Angeles Film Festival is affording just such an opportunity with the almost entirely forgotten Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. The first director from Argentina's bustling post-war film industry to establish a reputation on the international stage, Torre Nilsson, the son of a successful local film director and a Swedish mother, was invited to the Cannes and Berlin film festivals four times apiece from the late 1950s through the early 1970s, although by then his psychological, European-influenced style had…...

Andres Escobar in Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist‘s The Two Escobars (top); Guy Marchand in Jacques Martineau and Olivier Ducastel‘s Family Tree (middle); Elsa Daniel in Leopoldo Torre Nilsson‘s The House of the Angel (bottom) Below are a few highlights at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Friday, June 18: Following a screening of Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Dark Knight‘s and the upcoming Inception‘s filmmaker Christopher Nolan will talk with film critic Elvis Mitchell about the influence of Alan Parker‘s 1982 feature/music video on his work. John Kastner‘s Canadian documentary Life with Murder shows how the parents of a murdered young woman do what they can to protect their son, the accused murderer, while Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist‘s documentary The Two Escobars shows how sports, big money, and tribalism can be an explosive mix. The two Escobars in question...

The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival is set to run June 17-27 in a brand new location. Oh, it’s still in L.A, but it’s moving across town, from Westwood — where it’s been held the past few years — all the way over to Downtown.

The main “hub” for the fest will be the new L.A. Live complex, but there will also be screenings at other locations, such as the Downtown Independent and Redcat theaters. The city is really trying to build downtown up into a major arts and culture hub, so the festival moving there fits in with that agenda. Film Independent, the organization that runs Laff, also runs the annual Independent Spirit Awards, an event that also moved downtown — from Santa Monica — this year.

On Bad Lit, I tend to like to put up festival lineups that include days and times of screenings. However, since I...

Lisa Cholodenko's alternative family dramedy "The Kids Are All Right" from Focus Features will open the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, and Universal's 3D CGI feature "Despicable Me," directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin and starring Steve Carell, will close the fest 10 days later.

But the lineup of 200 feature films, shorts and music videos announced Tuesday will probably be overshadowed by the world premiere of David Slade's "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," the third installment in the teen vampire series. Summit will unveil the film, starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, at an invitation-only event at the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live on June 24.

Embracing U.S. indies, foreign films and mainstream studio fare, the 16th annual fest, which is relocating from Westwood to downtown's L.A. Live, has programmed a number of gala screenings instead of designating one film a "centerpiece premiere."

The...

There are plenty of films to be excited about at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival, but sadly they’ll probably be overshadowed by one. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will make its world debut at the festival on June 24th, six days before the film’s release date. However, the screening is invitation-only. How do you get an invitation? I have no idea. Maybe if you sign a contract saying your shrieking won’t rise above a certain decibel level.

As for the other films that aren’t invitation-only, there’s also the Sundance hit The Kids Are Alright, the closing night film Despicable Me, the Duplass Brother’s Cyrus, Neil Marshall’s Centurion, the education documentary Waiting for Superman, and Golden Lion-winner Lebanon.

Hit the jump to check out the full line-up. The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival will from June 17 – 27.

Here’s the full line-up. For more details,...

Like the headline says, the complete lineup for the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival has been announced and it's a fascinating, eclectic mix. How happy am I to see music doc Separado! in there? Pretty damn happy, as it's one of my absolute favorites of the year and has been resoundingly overlooked.  Read the complete announcement below!

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Los Angeles (May 4, 2010) - Today Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and year-round artist development programs and exhibition events, announced the official selections for the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times. The Festival will run from Thursday, June 17 to Sunday, June 27 in downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. Live. Now in its sixteenth year, the Festival is recognized as a world-class event, showcasing the best in new American...

Today Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and year-round artist development programs and exhibition events, announced the official selections for the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times. The Festival will run from Thursday, June 17 to Sunday, June 27 in downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. Live. Now in its sixteenth year, the Festival is recognized as a world-class event, showcasing the best in new American and international cinema and providing the movie-loving public with access to critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent from around the world.

The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival will screen over 200 feature films, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 40 countries. This year, the Festival received more than 4,700 submissions from filmmakers around the world. The final selections represent 28 World, North American, and U.S. premieres, which more...

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- Focus Features' The Kids Are All Right to Kick Off Festival   -

- World Premiere of Universal Pictures' 3-D CGI Feature Despicable Me Selected for Closing Night   -

- Summit Entertainment's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse to have World Premiere -

- Galas include Animal Kingdom, Cyrus, Mahler on the Couch, Revolución,& Waiting for Superman   -

Los Angeles (May 4, 2010) - Today Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and year-round artist development programs and exhibition events, announced the official selections for the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times. The Festival will run from Thursday, June 17 to Sunday, June 27 in downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. Live. Now in its sixteenth year, the Festival is recognized as a world-class event, showcasing...