Playhouse West Film Festival

Playhouse West is the original home of Sanford Meisner's Los Angeles classes, where he taught beginning in 1987 until the end of his teaching career. During this period Mr. Meisner continued to evolve his technique, adding new exercises and approaches. Only the Playhouse West teachers experienced these advances of one of the Master teachers of acting. So, the Playhouse West approach is completely unique in that it incorporates these innovations to Mr. Meisner's work, as well as being one of the very few teaching institutions that experienced first-hand instruction from Mr. Meisner himself.

Playhouse West is a training ground for actors, writers and directors founded by Robert Carnegie and Jeff Goldblum in 1981. As an adjunct to our on-going acting classes, we produce plays in repertory, using exclusively our current students, which are directed and often written by Playhouse West staff members and students. The Playhouse West theatrical production of "Welcome Home, Soldier" won "Best Play of 1991" and is currently the longest running play in L.A., now in its 18th year. Modeled upon the Group Theatre of the thirties, and owing much to its founders, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, and Elia Kazan, Playhouse West has been dedicated to keeping alive and promulgating a passion for realistic acting and the presentation of ensemble productions that address the current social moment.

This idea of an ensemble of actors who train and do plays together has grown to include film productions. In 1995, our long-time staff member, Jeff Goldblum, directed a film for Showtime, Little Surprises, which starred an ensemble of Playhouse West actors along with legendary actors Rod Steiger and Julie Harris. This short film went on to garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Motion Picture Short.

In the next few years, more and more film projects were being written, produced, directed and acted almost exclusively by our members. This prompted, in 1997, the conception of the Annual Playhouse West Film Festival. For the first nine years our film festival was dedicated to showing the best films either written, produced, directed or starring our current or former students, many which have gone on to gain notoriety and acclaim.

Playhouse West member Henry Barrial's film, Some Body, which premiered at our 4th Annual Film Festival, broke ground by becoming the first ever digital feature chosen as a finalist at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. In 2002, our Festival premiered the TNT original movie, James Dean, starring long-time Playhouse West member James Franco, which went on to receive rave reviews and a Golden Globe Award for James' performance. In 2003, a film written, directed and starring PW member Scott Caan, Dallas 362, garnered the Critic's Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the CineVegas International Film Festival. In 2004, Marty Sader's gripping feature, Most High, took home awards at three major film festivals, winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director and Screenplay at Chicago's IndieFest, the "Golden Starfish Award" for Best Feature Film at The Hamptons International Film Festival, and Best Picture at Atlanta Film Festival. In total, over 80 films which have premiered or screened at our Film Festival have gone on to win over 200 awards at other festivals around the world.

The 11th Annual Festival in 2007 introduced two major changes to our program. First, we opened our festival up to entries outside the Playhouse West community. Second, it was also the first time our festival was a competition, giving out jury and audience choice awards to our favorite films. These exciting changes brought entries from around the world, not only giving us a greater pool of quality films to choose from, but it served to introduce a new community of aspiring, talented filmmakers to our Playhouse West membership, as well as raising the filmmaking standards for us all. Last year we were proud to screen the L.A. of Rocco DeVillier's terrific feature, The Flyboys, which went on to win Best Picture at over 60 film festivals.

In addition to screening films, each year our Festival includes special guest speakers; professionals of great accomplishment in the film industry. Past special guests include directors Sydney Pollack, John Landis, Garry Marshall, Mark Rydell, James Gray, Chuck Russell and Joe Carnahan, as well as actors James Caan, Jeff Goldblum, Ashley Judd, James Franco, Scott Caan and Giovanni Ribisi, Logan and Noah Miller (Touching Home). In addition, many other directors, producers, writers and actors make up this year's terrific program of selections.