Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl.

Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También) will serve as the Guest Director for the festival. In this newly created role, Cuarón will host a two-day filmmaker retreat, program a sidebar of films that have inspired his work and attend opening night festivities.

"The filmmakers participating in this year's festival represent the unique vision and independent spirit IFP strives to promote," said Dawn Hudson. "Rachel Rosen and her team have programmed a wide-range of exciting cinema from around the world."

A total of 153 films including 57 features representing 22 countries will screen at the festival. This year saw submissions rise by 25% to more than 2,500 entries. The final selections represent more than 15 first-time filmmakers and more than 17 digital films.

"We were thrilled with the increase in the number of submissions this year," said Festival Director Rich Raddon. "With the announcement of the $50,000 Target Filmmaker Award and the addition of the international film section, we saw increased interest from filmmakers wanting to showcase their films at the festival."

The 2002 IFP/West - Los Angeles Film Festival will be comprised of the following sections:

Narrative Competition Section: Twelve films made by emerging American filmmakers compete for the Target Filmmaker Award which carries a $50,000 cash prize -- the largest cash prize bestowed by a major U.S. film festival.

Documentary Competition Section: Ten films compete for the Best Documentary Award.

International Cinema Section: Seventeen films made by foreign filmmakers compete for audience awards only.

Spotlight on Argentina: This year's special sidebar highlights three recent Argentinean films. Director of Programming Rachel Rosen exclusively programmed this section with Luis Ortega's Black Box, Israel Adrián Caetano's Bolivia and Veronica Chen's Smokers Only.

Alfonso Cuarón Showcase: Alfonso Cuarón, who serves as the festival's Guest Director, has programmed the following sidebar of films: Jacques Rozier's Adieu Philippine, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise and Felipe Cazal's Canoa.

Cast and Crew Screening: Valley Girl (1983)
(This special screening will take place on Sunday, June 23)

Live Music Screening: The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
(This special screening will take place on Saturday, June 22)
Under the stars at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, indie rock band Polara performs live to the classic silent French film The Fall of the House of Usher by avant-garde filmmaker Jean Epstein.

High School Showcase: Festival Programmer Layla Sewell worked with 18 film programs for high-schoolers to find an eclectic group of student shorts to screen at the Director's Guild. Invited high school filmmakers are given the opportunity to showcase their work and field questions from the audience following the screening.

Music Video Series: This series highlights visually inventive music videos. Two noteworthy and special programs, "Hip-Hop's Avant-Garde" and "Coded Language," were curated and will be introduced by critic Armond White.

Short Film Programs: The festival screens more than forty short films. Some are shown before features, while others will be shown as part of four short film programs including a program of horror shorts, "Twenty Four Screams Per Second" and a program of coming-of-age shorts, "Growth Spurts." Films selected in this section compete for cash awards and prizes.

Over the past eight years, the Los Angeles Film Festival has evolved into a world-class event, uniting emerging filmmakers with film critics, scholars, masters and the film-going public. Last year, IFP/West took over the festival. The festival expands this year to include international films, and a variety of special events and screenings throughout Los Angeles. Richard Raddon continues as Festival Director. Rachel Rosen, formerly of the San Francisco International Film Festival, was appointed Director of Programming in September 2001.

The festival has grown to more than 30,000 attendees, unveiling such films as Kissing Jessica Stein, George Washington, The Cruise, and Dead Man, and hosting talents such as Gena Rowlands, Bill Pullman, Holly Hunter, Eric Stoltz, Joe Montegna and Helen Hunt. At last year's festival, 51 feature films (22 world premieres) and 48 short films were screened. Business activity was significantly higher with four acquisitions including Kissing Jessica Stein purchased by Fox Searchlight Pictures, The Chateau purchased by IFC, Dancing at the Blue Iguana purchased by Lions Gate Releasing and Who is Bernard Tapie? purchased by the Sundance Channel.

IFP/West is Southern California's largest non-profit organization for independent filmmakers with more than 5,900 active members.

For event information and tickets call (866) FILM-FEST. For the complete line-up of films, go to www.lafilmfest.com.