LAist Film Calendar: The Los Angeles Animation Festival

It's like Sunday - silent, gray and cold. Dash the December doldrums with a colorful change of pace! The UCLA Film & Television Archives kicks off its Les Illusionistes: A Celebration of French Animation series Friday with jazz-inspired The Triplets of Belleville, paired with a preview of L'Illusioniste, the latest from Triplets director Sylvain Chomet. Mia et Le Migou is a charming rainforest adventure, while Kirikou and The Wild Beasts builds off of West African mythology. If that isn't enough Bruin Franimation, the Hammer also sponsors its own free screening of the medieval-tapestry tale Azur and Asmar on Sunday.

But why stick with a single country when the Los Angeles Animation Festival can offer the world? This year's festival, hosted at the Cinefamily, keeps the French space going with Fantastic Planet accompanied by a live score from Jesus Makes The Shotgun Sound. Then it skips over to the Czech Republic for Surviving Life (Theory and Practice), a psychosexual romp from stop-motion legend Jan Svankmajer with shades of Monty Python. The Fest jets over to Japan for the LA premiere of Redline, a rocket-fueled anime from Animatrix director Takeshi Koike, and then makes a pit stop for Piercing 1, China's first independent animated feature.

Back on the banks of the Mississippi, the Fest celebrates Mark Twain's 175th birthday with the newborn-by-comparison 25th anniversary of The Adventures of Mark Twain, the first all-claymation film. That film's director, Will Vinton, appears in support of Twain and a line-up of his own work, including '80s icons The California Raisins and the Domino's Pizza Noid. A more subversive, equally beloved story of American animation shines through a program of How MTV Rocked The Animation World, hosted by Titmouse (the animation studio behind Adult Swim's Metalocalypse). The last pick from American shores is a celebration of Pixar's marvelous short Day & Night, with director Teddy Newton reviewing his years of work with the studio and how his most recent work came together.

In the live-action world, fledgling film collective Long Beach Cinematheque is a-buzz over their team up with the Museum of Latin American Art for a screening of The Spirit of the Beehive alongside the museum's Siqueiros Paisajista / Siqueiros: Landscape Painter exhibit. The Spanish film follows two girls' quest to find Frankenstein's monster after a roadshow of the classic monster movie in their village. For even edgier experiments en Español, the LA Filmforum presents There's Something Else: Some Titles of Recent Spanish Experimental Cinema, featuring found footage, super 8, animation and a postapocalyptic teen work-camp from the year 1997.

Friday, the Long Beach Cinematheque returns to the Art Theatre mothership for another girl's fantasy with the Mondo midnight screening of Jim Henson's Labyrinth. The rest of the weekend, the Long Beach Cinematheque partners with AMP Organization for a two-day, uncut screening of Angels in America to mark World AIDS Day. The event is free, and donations will be collected throughout for AIDS/LifeCycle.

Full list appears below. See you at the movies!

All Week

• Applause (2009) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• The Assistants (2009) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• Barney's Version (2010) (The Landmark)
  
• Bhutto (2010) (Nuart Theatre)
  
• The Dreams of Jinsha (2010) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
  
• Essential Killing (2010) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
  
• Get Low (2009) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
  
• Louis (2010) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
  
• Meskada (2010) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
  
• Nora's Will (2008) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
  
• Saha (2010) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• Undertow (2009) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
  

Thursday 12/2

• 7th Annual Artivist Film Festival (Egyptian Theatre)
  
• Another Year (2010) (free event) (Melnitz Movies)
  
• Black Heaven (2010) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
  
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967) / Little Big Man (1970) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) (w/ special guests) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (What's Up, Docs?)
  
• Experiment in Terror (1962) / Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) (w/ actress Stefanie Powers) (Aero Theatre)
  
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) (Arclight Hollywood) (Arclight Sherman Oaks) (21+ screening)
  
• The King of Legend (Korean Cultural Center)
  
• The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) (Long Beach Cinematheque) (Museum of Latin American Art)
  

Friday 12/3

• The 2nd Los Angeles Animation Festival International (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
  
• 7th Annual Artivist Film Festival (Egyptian Theatre)
  
• Applause (2009) (w/ actress Paprika Steen) (Aero Theatre)
  
• Bhutto (2010) (w/ director Duane Baughman at the 7:30pm and 10pm shows) (Nuart Theatre)
  
• Breathless (1960) / Contempt (1963) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)(Regency Academy) (Insomniac Cinema Midnight Movie)
  
• Gone With the Pope (2010) (midnight show) (New Beverly Cinema) (Grindhouse Film Festival)
  
• High Plains Drifter (1973) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
  
• The Illusionist (2010) / The Triplets of Belleville (2003) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Les Illusionistes: A Celebration of French Animation)
  
• Labyrinth (1986) (Long Beach Cinematheque) (Art Theatre of Long Beach) (Mondo Fridays)
  

Saturday 12/4

• The 2nd Los Angeles Animation Festival International (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
  
• 7th Annual Artivist Film Festival (Egyptian Theatre)
  
• 2010 Channy Awards (Downtown Independent)
  
• Angels in America: Part I (2003) (free event w/ all donations benefiting AIDS/LifeCycle) (Long Beach Cinematheque) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
  
• Bhutto (2010) (w/ director Duane Baughman at the 7:30pm and 10pm shows) (Nuart Theatre)
  
• Breathless (1960) / Contempt (1963) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• Earth Story (1998) (Ramo Auditorium @ Caltech) (Science Saturdays)
  
• Heartbreaker (2010) (Warner Grand Theatre) (Foreign Films in French)
  
• Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
  
• Marwencol (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
  
• Mia et le Migou (2008) / Raining Cats and Dogs (2003) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Les Illusionistes: A Celebration of French Animation)
  
• Nightmares (1983) (New Beverly Cinema) (New Beverly Midnights)
  
• Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Sins O' The Flesh Midnight Show) (Nuart Theatre)
  
• Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Midnight Insanity Midnight Show) (South Coast Village Regency Theaters)
  
• The Seven Samurai (1954) (Aero Theatre)
  
• Waste Land (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
  
• Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
  

Sunday 12/5

• The 2nd Los Angeles Animation Festival International (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
  
• Angels in America: Part II (2003) (free event w/ all donations benefiting AIDS/LifeCycle) (Long Beach Cinematheque) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
  
• Auntie Mame (1958) (The Bay Theatre)
  
• Azur and Asmar (2006) (free event) (Hammer Museum) (Family Flicks)
  
• Barry Lyndon (1975) (Egyptian Theatre)
  
• Eleonore's Secret (2009) / Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Les Illusionistes: A Celebration of French Animation)
  
• Heat (1995) (New Beverly Cinema)
  
• Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
  
• Justice on Trial: Mumia Abu Jamal (Downtown Independent)
  
• Mariachi Christmas Concert (Warner Grand Theatre)
  
• Marwencol (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
  
• Mondscheinkinder (2006) (Goethe-Institut) (Kinder Kino)
  
• There's Something Else (Recent Spanish Experimental Cinema) (Los Angeles Filmforum) (Egyptian Theatre)
  
• Waste Land (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
  
• Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
  

That's all for this week. I'll be out of town & out of commission next week. I'll miss you too.