AFI Fest is like the Hollywood Film Festival in their hometown

A1 Digital India News: Hollywood may be synonymous with filmmaking, but Los Angeles has historically been reluctant to support major film festivals. AFI Fest, which launched its red carpet opening night on Wednesday, hopes to confirm its status as the city's landmark event, especially after seeing an encouraging increase in pre-sales this fall.

According to American Film Institute president Bob Gazzell, the first day of availability saw a 200% increase in advance tickets compared to last year's edition. "I hate to say it, but the question is huge: 'Will people still go see the movie?' Yet we sold out," Gazzell told Variety.

"It says something about a fantastic programming team, because they find films of interest. It naturally attracts audiences no matter what city we’re in.” However, strong programs don’t always guarantee the continued support of local festivals. In L.A., the popular L.A. Film Festival was canceled in 2018 after a quarter-century run, with parent organization Film Independent moving to year-round events. Then the LGBTQ-focused Outfest nearly shut down in 2023 after a wave of layoffs and executive upheaval.

These changes leave room for other festivals to gain attention. The genre-focused Beyond Fest in partnership with the American Cinematheque held another spectacular two-weekend in October, while the modestly scaled, precisely curated Los Angeles Film Festival presented a weekend of indies gearing up for a second edition in April.

Both events attracted particularly young audiences, a trend Gazelle also noticed at AFI Fest, which she counted among the “younger” group of attendees last year. The coming of age of many film festivals is a challenge. That’s an encouraging statistic considering the difficulties, which include losing Bell, the Toronto International Film Festival’s major sponsor, last year and Sundance making a potentially existential decision about Park City’s future.

“We support and encourage anyone who wants to create a film festival,” Gazzaley said, dismissing the notion of competition from other L.A. programming. “We see it as a close-knit community of people with the same goal.”

While Los Angeles remains a strong hub for repertory cinema, the city’s longest-running festival, AFI Fest, is essentially the last big game in town for studios looking to headline prestigious titles. Returning banners include Sony Pictures Classics and “I’m Still Here,” a political drama from director Walter Salles and Brazil’s entry in the international feature Oscar category.

“It’s great to have a major film festival in Los Angeles. There are a lot of entrepreneurs in this business, and this is the center of where the movies are made,” said SPC co-chairman Michael Barker. “We follow AFI Fest. We showed ‘The Room Next Door’ right after it finished. We asked them if they would mind if the fall festival was held beforehand, because sometimes that is an issue. And they said they didn’t mind.”

AFI Fest’s calendar position as the last major festival of autumn offers both advantages and disadvantages, with programmers generally selecting the year’s best headliners. But the short gap of weeks between the start of Fall Fest and the start of AFI also means that some films get lost in the shuffle. The majority of Sony Pictures classics are scheduled for next year, including well-known Toronto premieres like the Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi drama “On Swift Horses” and the French rom-com “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” AFI discussed at the presentation. The acquisition was completed too late to meet the deadline.

"It's always been a challenge because we're part of the fall festival season, but we're also dependent on things premiering in Venice or Toronto," said Todd Hitchcock, a longtime programmer at the AFI Silver Theatre. He's now entering his second year as AFI Fest director. "We have just as big a selection of films for the fall festival window as we had at the beginning of the year. But you're always playing around with them to buy time."

Among the six red carpet premieres, AFI Fest included two titles that previously premiered at other fests. On Thursday, A24 will screen Hugh Grant's horror film "Heretic," making its Toronto debut. Then, on Saturday, Pablo Larraín's "Maria" will be screened. Netflix bought the Maria Callas biopic before it premieres in Venice, planning to challenge Angelina Jolie for best actress.