Director Yells ‘Cut!’ at AFI Festival

Not only did last year’s AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival begin the Roberto Benigni juggernaut by opening its weeklong event with the American premiere of “Life Is Beautiful,” it ended up becoming the American Film Institute’s most successful festival.

“Our box office was up by 90%,” says director Jon Fitzgerald, who is celebrating his third year with AFI. (About 75,000 tickets were sold last year.) Previously, Fitzgerald was founder and executive director of Slamdance, the alternative festival to Sundance.

The 13th annual festival kicks off tonight at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood with “The Cider House Rules,” the film version of the John Irving novel, and concludes Oct. 29 with Pedro Almodovar’s latest, “All About My Mother,” and an awards ceremony.

Fitzgerald believes he’s hit upon a winning combination for the AFI Festival. Since coming on board, he’s cut back on the number of films screened and given the festival more focus by dividing the films into different categories. Two years ago, the Grand Jury Prize winner, “Character,” went on to win the best foreign language Oscar.

“Last year, there was more momentum going in and the timing with ‘Life Is Beautiful’ couldn’t have been better,” he says. “And we had additional sponsors to get the word out.”

This year, Fitzgerald has cut back even more on the number of films being screened. “There are about 50 films and a few special screenings,” he says. “I think festivals that have too many movies and too many choices make it difficult to counter-program. Before I came on, it was a two- or three-week festival and they showed 300 films. It was insane. Less is more.”

The biggest change this year for the festival is that it has a new home. The festival’s nerve center will be the Egyptian Theater. Screenings will also take place at two other Hollywood Boulevard movie theaters: the Vogue and El Capitan.

“What we don’t want is for somebody to drive from Santa Monica, park their car, see a movie and go home,” says Fitzgerald. “We’re buying up some parking lots and making the parking easy and discounted. We want people to know they can come, park their car for a day and see movies. They can spend the day with us.”

Official Selection films that will screen in competition include “After the Rain” (Monday at the Egyptian), based on Akira Kurosawa’s last script, and Chen Kaige’s “The Emperor and the Assassin” (Sunday at the Egyptian). India’s “Throne of Death” (Saturday at the Egyptian), winner of the Cannes’ Camera D’or, will be shown out of competition.

Other categories include New Directions, which showcases American independent films, the Latin Cinema Series, the European Film Showcase, and the Documentary Series.

The Latin Cinema Series is new this year. “We’ll keep it as a mainstay,” says Fitzgerald.

Festival Open to Public--Not ‘an Insider Thing’

“One of the big points I want to get across is that the festival really has a pretty big responsibility to appeal to a very broad demographic,” Fitzgerald adds. “What we are really trying to do is give everybody something.”

And he wants to prove that film festivals aren’t just for the elite. “I believe there is a feeling in a lot of people’s minds that festivals are almost an insider thing,” he says. “You have to be part of the industry and you have to be invited. I think there is a pretty healthy group out there who don’t know that film festivals are open to the public. It’s just like going to the AMC. The only difference is that you are going to see a movie in one of these historic movie palaces.”

The crown jewel of the classic film retrospective is the Saturday premiere of the newly restored four-hour version of Erich von Stroheim’s silent “Greed” at the Egyptian. Such classics as “Citizen Kane” (Sunday), “The Bicycle Thief” (Monday), and “Children of Paradise” (Oct. 28) will screen at El Capitan. Two shorts preserved by the AFI (Sunday at the Egyptian) will also screen during the festival, including “Jerks of All Trades,” a TV pilot from the late ‘40s starring the Three Stooges.

The AFI Festival also includes a screenwriters’ weekend, Saturday and Sunday, at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills. Among those participating will be James L. Brooks, Steve Martin, Eric Roth and Ron Bass. The event kicks off with an evening with Oliver Stone.

Directly after the closing-night ceremonies, patrons can walk across the street to catch an all-night Halloween-themed movie marathon at the Vogue. “We’re showing ‘Eraserhead’ and some foreign films with live deejays. It will be a very unique event, to say the least.”

BE THERE

The 13th AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, today-Oct. 29 at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.; El Capitan Theatre, 6338 Hollywood Blvd.; the Vogue Theatre, 6675 Hollywood Blvd.; the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd.; Writers Guild Theatre, 135 S. Doheny Drive; Sotheby’s, 9665 Wilshire Blvd. Tickets are $8.50; $6 for weekday matinees. The tribute to composer Elmer Bernstein is at the Egyptian Theater on Tuesday, when there will also be a screening of Martin Scorsese’s “Bringing Out the Dead,” Bernstein’s latest film. Tickets are $10, Moving Pictures Art Auction is $50, and the closing-night gala $50. For schedule and tickets, call (323) 520-2000 or log on to the Web site, https://www.AFIfest.com.