The red carpet could be rolled out for a new film festival in Hermosa Beach next year.
The non-profit Hermosa Arts Foundation and a Parks and Recreation subcommittee are working with film festival consultant Jon Fitzgerald, who has worked for the American Film Institute and Santa Barbara Film Festival, to create a “blueprint” for the festival.
Fitzgerald told the city council on Tuesday night that Hermosa would be a great location for a high-end festival. He said the goal is to create a local, membership-supported cinema society to stage monthly screenings for film buffs, with a three or four day festival as the group’s flagship annual event. The event could also include music and art installations.
“It’s an event that would do really well in this community,” Fitzgerald said. “We want to create spectacular galas, art exhibitions and music showcases … We want to create a Hermosa Beach cinema society that allows us to do events year-round.”
The festival could be called the South Bay Film and Music Festival, according to the presentation to the council. It is tentatively scheduled for May 12 – May 15 of next year. Another possibility is merging with an existing festival and staging the event in June, Fitzgerald said.
The event would take place at the Hermosa Beach Community Theatre at the community center. The festival project began as part of an effort by the city to increase usage of the theater, which is frequently used for staging kids’ performances.
The festival’s programming would focus on films that range from documentaries, action sports films, films focusing on ocean conservation issues and retrospectives of classic works. Fitzgerald said he’s also started to approach sponsors.
Meanwhile, the Hermosa Arts Foundation has committed about $100,000 to improve the theater, said the foundation’s Jan Brittain. The group is hoping to replace the theater’s dated seats and is looking at ways to raise additional money. One option would be to sell seat sponsorships, Brittain said.
Hermosa Beach has previously hosted other festivals, such as the Beach Shorts Film Fest, which showcases short surf films. It will again take place at the community theater in August.
But the idea with the new festival is to stage an event that could draw top filmmakers and actors to Hermosa and compete with other stops on the festival circuit. And as part of the film society’s monthly screening series, directors could come to the theater to participate in audience Q & A’s, Fitzgerald said. Parks and Recreation Commissioner Robert Rosenfeld said he’s already reached out to local contacts in the film industry to see how they could work together.
Mayor Peter Tucker voiced his support for the idea. He noted that City Manager Tom Bakaly previously worked as city manager in Park City, Utah – home of the Sundance Film Festival — and could possibly lend Hermosa some added experience in the field.
“That festival they have there in Park City, if we could duplicate that, we’d be on the map,” Tucker said.
