Today the Los Angeles Film Festival, in conjunction with Presenting Media Sponsor the Los Angeles Times and Host Partner L.A. LIVE, announced its jurors for the 2012 Festival, which runs Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 24 in downtown Los Angeles.

The narrative jury consists of Film Independent Spirit Award-nominated actress Rachael Harris (Natural Selection, Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies), Spirit Award-nominated actor, writer, producer and director Robert Townsend (Hollywood Shuffle, The Five Heartbeats) and film critic Sheri Linden (LAFCA, The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times).

The documentary jury is comprised of Spirit Award-winning producers Heather Rae (Frozen River, The Dry Land) and Karin Chien (Circumstance, The Exploding Girl), and director Mark Landsman (Thunder Soul), who won the 2010 LA Film Fest Audience Award and was nominated for a 2011 Spirit Award.

Film critic and author Ernest Hardy (Blood Beats Vols. 1 and 2), Spirit Award-nominated cinematographer Nancy Schreiber (Your Friends And Neighbors, The Celluloid Closet) and writer/director/editor Javier Fuentes León (Contracorriente), who won the Audience Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival round out the shorts jury.

“I couldn’t be happier with our juries this year. We’ve assembled a sterling team that represents all aspects of the film business: producers, directors, cinematographers, actors, critics and, like the movies in the Festival, reflects the diversity of Los Angeles,” said Festival Artistic Director David Ansen.

Unrestricted cash awards are given out in the following categories: Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature ($15,000), Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature ($15,000), Best Animated or Experimental Short ($5,000), Best Documentary Short ($5,000) and Best Narrative Short ($5,000). The jury also hands out an award for Best Outstanding Performance in a Narrative Feature. The Audience Awards, which are chosen based on ballots submitted by Festival audiences, are presented in the following categories: Narratve Feature, Documentary Feature, International Feature, Short Film and Music Video. The Los Angeles Film Festival is a qualifying festival in all categories for the Film Independent Spirit Awards and for the Narrative and Animated Short Film categories at the Academy Awards.

The competition and audience award winners, presented by special guest hosts, will be announced at the Awards Brunch held at CHAYA Downtown on Sunday, June 24.

To keep track of all the fun happenings at the Los Angeles Film Festival, iPhone users can now download the official mobile app by visiting the App Store. Features include a real-time, searchable film guide, ability to customize a personal schedule, purchase tickets, stream trailers, navigate the L.A. LIVE campus and parking, find Festival discounts at downtown restaurants, and engage with the Festival via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. To access features of the iPhone app on other mobile devices, visit LAFF’s quickmobile page.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2012 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Film Festivals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.