It’s interesting because many European films are showing influences of American independents. The most mumblecore in feel of all the films in the program, though, is The International Sign for Choking, which seems like an American independent, but it hails from Argentina. It’s an experiment between genres and definitely an emerging trend. With this year’s films-for example, Tchoupitoulas or Leviathan-at first glance you think you’re watching a narrative film, but it’s a documentary. MM: What exciting trends do you see surfacing in the micro-budget American independent film world?ĪFI: There are some lingering mumblecore elements, but recently there’s been a melding of narrative cinema and documentary cinema. Eventually we bring all that programming and screening knowledge we’ve accumulated over the year and pull together the AFI Fest. We personally received about 3,000 submissions, but we also look to films that have been making a name for themselves on the festival circuit, and to filmmakers we think people should be watching.
MM: How do you go about selecting the Young American and New Auteurs slates?ĪFI: Our goal is to contextualize the best of the year, so we see a lot of films. Also screening this year are Brandon Cronenberg’s first film, Antiviral. Last year in that section there was Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet, which was released last week in theatres. It’s an extraordinary section with very high quality films. What’s on the docket this year?ĪFI: There are some great emerging filmmakers. MM: AFI also works hard to spotlight American independent filmmakers with its Young Americans series. MM: Certified Copy is a tremendous film, so we’re excited to hear that you guys have his follow up.ĪFI: It’s one of those things where it’s kind of a great double bill for anyone who missed Certified Copy to catch it on DVD or Netflix before they come out to the festival and see Like Someone In Love. There’s also After Lucia, Mexico’s foreign language Oscar entry, and Abbas Kiaostami’s new film, Like Someone in Love, which is a really great companion piece to 2010’s Certified Copy. We have the Swedish film Eat, Sleep Die, an audience award winner at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year. AFI Fest is screening a really wide range this year. Jacqueline Lyanga (AFI): I’m excited about a number of films. What international films fall into the must-see category at this year’s festival? On the world cinema side, Yorgos Lanthamos’ startling follow-up to Dogtooth, ALPS, played to a sold-out crowd in 2011.
But AFI also prides itself on being a showcase for small, cutting-edge independent films. MovieMaker (MM): Amongst many others, The Artist screened to an enormous AFI audience last November before going on to ruin the Oscars for the talkies. That’s why MovieMaker sat down with AFI Festival Director Jacqueline Lyanga to talk about this season’s program, and why you have to go.
Moviemaker 2012 for free#
And for the next week, at the Chinese Theater and the Egyptian, you can see a round-up of the best films 2012 has to offer-big and small, foreign and domestic-entirely for free thanks to Audi (the Germans are subsidizing everyone these days).įrom Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln to Jacques Audiard’s MMA-fighter-meets-killer-whale-victim love story, Rust and Bone to Sean Baker’s pornstar-with-a-heart-and-a-penchant-for-bingo mini-masterpiece, Starlet, the 2012 slate is as diverse and exciting as it was last year (even if you just saw Miss Bala in 2011, you know what we’re talking about). AFI Fest starts Thursday November 1st at everyone’s favorite LA confluence of tourism and indigence: Hollywood and Highland.
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