Well here we are. The tents are up, the tickets have been printed and the gratis bottles of Festival cheer have been delivered to our Culver Studios home base, waiting for avid attendees, filmmakers and guests of the 2016 LA Film Festival to uncork and guzzle in celebration of independent film in the City of Angels.

That’s right—its June 1, the official start of this year’s LA Film Festival. Do you have your tickets yet? If not, don’t worry. There’s still time. The Festival officially kicks off tonight with a world premiere screening of Ricardo de Montreuil’s East LA car-culture drama Lowriders at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

And if you haven’t secured a ticket to that prestigious event, there are eight more days of indie film premieres, special events, panels and parties for you to avail yourself of at our Festival headquarters in downtown Culver City, CA.

But don’t take my word for it—check out our impressive Festival lineup. Or better yet, check out what the 2016 LA Film Festival programming team has to say about this year’s selection of diverse and innovative feature films.

Recently, we interviewed LA Film Festival Lead Programmer Roya Rastegar, Senior Programmer Drea Clark, Associate Programmer Stephanie Owens, Senior Programmer Jenn Wilson, Creative Director Jennifer Cochis, Programmer Ray Price, Associate Programmer Cooper Hopkins and Associate Programmer Cristhian Barron to learn what to look forward to, as well as the overall experience of putting together the slate for this year’s Festival.

Here’s what they had to say:

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MEET THE 2016 LA FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING TEAM

We also asked the team what the deliberations were like over the many long nights and forceful deliberations that it took to put together the 2016 lineup:

And for fun, we asked each of the programming team about their own favorite LA movies past and present, from big-budget blockbusters to insightful indies:

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WHAT’S PLAYING IN THE U.S. DRAMATIC CATEGORY?

Learn more about the U.S. Dramatic category at this year’s Festival here. 

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WHAT’S PLAYING IN THE DOCUMENTARY CATEGORY?

Learn more about the Documentary category at this year’s Festival here. 

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WHAT’S PLAYING IN THE WORLD CINEMA CATEGORY?

Learn more about the World Cinema category at this year’s Festival here. 

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WHAT’S PLAYING IN THE NIGHTFALL CATEGORY?

Learn more about the Nightfall category at this year’s Festival here.

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WHAT’S PLAYING IN THE LA MUSE CATEGORY?

Learn more about the LA Muse category at this year’s Festival here. Also, be sure to watch this exclusive series of interviews with the 2016 LA Muse filmmakers on our YouTube channel or by watching the playlist below:

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The 2016 LA Film Festival begins today. Buy your tickets soon before they’re gone for good. For individual screenings and ticket sales, click here.

To see our full lineup and Festival Guide, please visit our website, stay tuned to this blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Learn how to become a Member of Film Independent by clicking here.