Starting tonight is the 2012 Los Angeles Animation Festival at the Showcase Theatre in Hollywood (near the corner of La Brea and Melrose). This evening at 7:30pm is a FREE Opening Night Party with MC Tom Kenny who will introduce special guests, clips and trailers of the films to be screened.

The complete schedule of events is posted here but highlights include Sean Lennon introducing a screening of AKIRA on Thursday night; Brad Bird introducing THE IRON GIANT along with several artists and voice actors from the film on Friday night; the West Coast premiere of A MONSTER IN PARIS on Saturday night; and vintage Cal Arts student films by Lasseter, Hillenberg, Selick, Tartakovsky and McCracken on Sunday. I myself will be co-presenting an ASIFA screening of a 35mm Technicolor print of Fleischer’s Gulliver’s Travels (1939), on Saturday at 5:30pm.

The theatre is located at 614 N. LaBrea Ave. and parking will be difficult – but the tickets are relatively cheap and the shows are terrific. For more info click here. See you there!

Jerry Beck

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