| NEWS 10.16.09 12:45 PM |
|
Film Independent's Spirit Awards Heading Downtown to L.A. Live
|
Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced Thursday that the 2010 Spirit Awards will be held on Friday, March 5, in a tent on the event deck at L.A. Live—a departure from the show's typical home on the day before the Academy Awards and its most recent Santa Monica location. This time the awards will be handed out two days before the Oscars, which are scheduled for Sunday, March 7.
Over the past 25 years, the event has been held at various locations in Los Angeles, including the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Beverly Hills Hotel, Hollywood Palladium, and the Santa Monica beach.
"We wanted to do something very special and different for the 25th anniversary by holding the only late-night awards show, where our audience can tune in live at 11 p.m. on the East Coast," said Film Independent executive director Dawn Hudson in the announcement. "Our new venue will still have the laid-back, no-holds-barred atmosphere that only the independent film community can create." Some are nevertheless already speculating the move could change the independent character of the event.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Film Independent, Spirit Awards, L.A. Live, Netflix, Elle, Piaget, Acura, Jameson, IFC |
 |
| FROM THE EDITORS 06.16.09 11:01 AM |
|
The 2009 BizBash L.A. Event Style Award Winners
|
 | Ellen DeGeneres's 50th Birthday Party
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Brothers Special Events |
|
On Friday, we posted a list of winners of BizBash's 2009 Event Style Awards, which were announced on Thursday at a ceremony following our annual expo at the L.A. Mart. Here's more on the winning work.
Best Corporate Event Concept (Over $50,000)
Ellen DeGeneres's 50th Birthday Party
Submitted by Warner Brothers Special Events
To celebrate the TV host’s birthday and her move from NBC to Warner Brothers Studios, Telepictures Productions hosted a celebration that doubled as a segment for the comedian’s show. Organizers designed a vintage carnival and incorporated her favorite things, including dancing and games, as well as some celebrity guests.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Warner Brothers, Emirates Airlines, The Simpsons, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Stanford Cancer Center, Marriott International, Essilor, Autry Museum, Recording Academy, Grammys, Target, Converse, MTV Movie Awards, Chevy, Netflix, Film Independent, Spirit Awards, Event Style Awards |
|
| EVENT REPORT 02.25.09 2:28 PM |
|
Spirit Awards' Pop-Up Sponsor Lounges Look Like Permanent Installations
|
 | Elle's green room
Photo: Stefanie Keenan/WireImage.com |
|
Backstage guests at Film Independent's Spirit Awards on Saturday found a pair of sponsor lounges that—although they popped up only for event day—seemed as if they might live permanently in the beachside Santa Monica setting. "It took us a week to load in. The tent looked like more like a permanent structure," said Larry Abel, who produced and designed the two lounges for Elle and Piaget. "We put in subfloors and built up from there so that we had some people in there wondering, 'Is this a tent?' And that's what we love to do."
Elle's green room—in which Garnier, Maybelline, Acura, and Lacoste also represented their wares—had a beachy look featuring materials like wooden slats, seashells, and sand, where presenters, winners, select press folks, and miscellaneous non-ticket holders could come to relax (and pick up products from sponsors) before, during, and after the show.
"It's very much in line with the Elle brand," said the magazine's New York-based special events and merchandising manager, Caitlin Weiskopf. "We're about independent style, the high and the low, fun and relaxed. That's what the Spirit Awards are about [too]; it's the fun, cool event during award season where you can wear a pair of designer denim jeans and be next to someone on the carpet wearing YSL—and that's exactly what our brand is about."
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Spirit Awards, Film Independent, Award Season, Elle, Piaget, Lacoste, Acura, Garnier, Maybelline, Gift Suites |
|
 |
|
| TOP 100 EVENTS 02.16.09 8:00 AM |
|
Southern California's Top Entertainment & Media Events 2009
|
 | SAG Awards
Photo: James Sequenzia |
|
1. Academy Awards
In a town cluttered with award shows, the Oscars always end up at the top of the heap, unrivaled for glitter, buzz, and packed after-parties. The 2009 event—the 81st annual—will hit the Kodak Theater on February 22 and will be broad-cast live on ABC.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Southern California's Top 100 Events, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Recording Academy, Screen Actors Guild, Film Independent, Environmental Media Association, American Film Institute, Women in Film, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Glaad, N.A.A.C.P., BET |
|
| NEWS 12.01.08 11:50 AM |
|
L.A. Film Fest Director Richard Raddon Resigns Over Prop 8 Contributions
|
After he faced tough criticism over a $1,500 contribution in support of Proposition 8, Richard Raddon resigned his post as director of the Los Angeles Film Festival last week, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He had held the position at Film Independent's festival since 2000. Buzz and anger about his contribution had been growing for weeks: Film Independent has openly gay members on its board and actively encourages diversity among its stated goals.
The controversy comes as some groups are calling for boycotts of supporters of the "Yes on 8" campaign. Some have called for a boycott of the Sundance Film Festival because it is located in the Mormon church's home state of Utah, or a boycott of the Holiday Village Cinemas used by the festival because the theater is owned by the Cinemark chain, whose C.E.O., Alan Stock, contributed to the campaign, according to THR. There have yet been no calls for a boycott of the L.A. Film Fest or Film Independent's Spirit Awards. —Alesandra Dubin
RELATED TOPICS
Los Angeles Film Festival, Proposition 8, Gay Marriage Laws, Film Independent, Sundance |
|
|
|
|
| EVENT REPORT 07.02.08 12:25 PM |
|
Blockbuster Universal Premieres Bookend L.A. Film Festival
|
Los Angeles may be the film capital of the world, but unless the city's film lovers are actually working in the entertainment industry, most will have to keep on driving—or stand behind barricades—when they see a theater hosting one of the zillion movie premieres thrown here in any given year. All that changes, however, when the Los Angeles Film Festival rolls around. Film Independent's 10-day event, which brings together filmmakers and their ticket-buying public at screenings and parties, is designed to bridge the gap, essentially bringing down the “fourth wall” dividing them.
This year—the festival's 14th—Film Independent partnered with Universal Pictures for its opening- and closing-night galas on June 19 and Saturday, which doubled as world premieres for the studio's features Wanted and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, respectively. At a time when financial pressures are squeezing the independent movie industry and some major studios are shutting down their indie film arms, the two organizations found common ground in Universal's blockbuster action films directed by auteur filmmakers (Wanted's Timbor Bekmambetov and Hellboy's Guillermo del Toro).
“What Universal is doing that's so great, which you're not seeing from most of the other studios, is that it's working with great independent directors,” said Diana Zahn, Film Independent's director of special events, who organized the galas with Hollace Davids, Universal Pictures Marketing's senior vice president of special projects. “What you're seeing are the directors' visions on a totally different scale. They're the perfect partner for us in the film festival.”
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Los Angeles Film Festival, Film Independent, Universal Pictures, Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army |
|
| TOP 100 EVENTS 02.29.08 7:29 PM |
|
Southern California's Top Entertainment Industry Events 2008
|
 | The Environmental Media Awards
Photo: Alex Berliner/Berliner Studios/BEImages |
|
1. Academy Awards
The most ballyhooed shindig of the entertainment year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences’ Oscars take place at the Kodak Theatre. Vanity Fair generally has a lock on the most coveted after-party, but the magazine canceled its 2008 event in the wake of the Writers Guild strike, leaving Elton John's AIDS fund-raiser as this year's most high-profile Oscar bash. Sequoia Productions is the longtime producer of the academy’s official Governors Ball. The 80th annual show was held on February 24.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Southern California's Top 100 Events, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, DirecTV, People Magazine, ET, Recording Academy, Warner Brothers, Sony, Film Independent, Screen Actors Guild, American Film Institute, Environmental Media Association, Toyota, Goldenvoice, Women in Film, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, American Cinematheque, The Los Angeles Times, Glaad, N.A.A.C.P., Starz, BET |
|
| EVENT REPORT 02.26.08 5:00 PM |
|
IFC Encourages Sticky-Note Art at Indie Spirit After-Party
|
 | IFC's logo was ubiquitous.
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage |
|
Film Independent has been honoring indie film greats with its annual Spirit awards ceremony for 23 years, and certainly, no cable channel has a more obvious tie to the nonprofit's independent spirit than the Independent Film Channel. IFC began broadcasting the afternoon event 12 years ago, and for a decade it's kept the party going by throwing an after-bash: the IFC "Party Celebrating the Spirit of Independent Film."
The IFC after-party offers young film-industry folk an opportunity to indulge in their favorite form of recreation: networking. The award ceremony takes place over lunch in a Santa Monica tent within spitting distance of the Pacific Ocean, and for most of that time, guests are seated at tables. When the tent folds up (figuratively, that is) around 4 p.m., about 1,000 guests—nominees, winners, and friends and advertisers of IFC—convene at the nearby Shutters Hotel on the Beach, where the channel hosts its lively branding op.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
IFC, Spirit Awards, Award Season, Film Independent |
|
|
