Rich and Successful Film Festival to Launch Sept. 4 in L.A.

Tim Gray
·2 min read

L.A.’s Rich and Successful Film Festival launches Sept. 4, starting at 1 p.m., at the Lumiere Music Hall in Beverly Hills.

The festival spotlights work by independent filmmakers who live in Los Angeles County. Indie production company Sogbots, which is presenting the fest, said there were more than 100 submissions, and there will be 14 films shown.

Principals at the Echo Park-based Sogbots are Noah Edward Morse, Nir Liebenthal, Dylan Trupiano and Jeremy Roth-Rose.

As Roth-Rose tells Variety, “When we moved to L.A. after college, we found it was too easy to get lost and not know where or how to meet other filmmakers. We decided a film fest would be a great opportunity to A) meet other filmmakers and B) connect filmmakers of all levels to each other.

“In our programming process, we intentionally selected films that represent the spectrum of production budgets — from handheld iPhone videos to high-budget films shot on industry-standard equipment.”

Morse adds, “We want to subvert the conventional festival concept by favoring community-building over competition. There will be no first, second, or third prizes: only a group screening that highlights an array of strengths from a diverse group of filmmakers.”

Sogbots plans to make this an annual event. “Our hope,” says Roth-Rose, “is that these types of screenings can continue as a resource for other independent filmmakers. We want to help make indie showbiz — an often decentralized and nebulous world — a bit easier to navigate.”

Among the films slated this weekend are “Bye Bye Buddy,” “Terry Fitz, SAG Eligible,” “2064,” “Dear Mama,” “Mishandled,” “The Meantime,” “Existing is a Bitch RN,” “This Guy’s Got a Giant Horse,” “Happy Birthday,” “Hook and Chain,” “Little Fish,” “The Story of the West Side,” “Electricity” and “Papa Sun.”

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