Festival to Feature Latino Filmmakers

More than 70 Latino filmmakers representing 13 countries will be featured in the second annual Los Angeles International Film Festival beginning Friday at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood.

Films will be shown daily from noon to 10 p.m. through Oct. 11. Screenings will take place at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Citadel Theater at CityWalk in Universal City and the Paramount Theater in Hollywood.

Film festival general manager Alan Noel Vega said he hopes the festival will evolve into a juried film expo with cash prizes. He said he also hopes to call attention to the artistic work of Latino auteurs.

“Hollywood has a certain formula that’s geared toward the actor as product, but festival films tend to be more artsy,” he said. “We give a lot more emphasis to the director as the artistic vehicle in a film.”

Vega said he also is trying to generate interest in the entertainment industry to establish scholarship programs to help young people learn about the craft of filmmaking.

Four scholarships totaling $20,000 have been established by graphic designer Ron Kriss and Mark Grasso, regional manager of the digital special-effects company Quantel. Scholarships may be used by aspiring filmmakers to enroll in Quantel programs at Pasadena City College and Santa Monica College.

Grasso said the community college programs help students get hands-on training in digital special effects without investing huge amounts of money in the equipment.

For information about the scholarship programs, ticket prices, times and locations of films, call (323) 469-9066.