Anaheim is hosting its first international film festival in October.
The event is expected to draw up to 10,000 people to the beleaguered Shops at Anaheim GardenWalk and bring about $1 million to Anaheim through food and hotel stays.
The Anaheim International Film Festival will feature more than 300 films from the U.S. and overseas, which will be screened from Oct. 13 to Oct. 17 at the movie theater at Anaheim GardenWalk near Disneyland.
“Anaheim is the ideal place to host an international film festival, with its community focus, cultural diversity and prime location,” said Sinan Kanatsiz, cofounder of the festival and chief executive at San Clemente-based marketing firm KCOMM.
The call went out in February for submissions.
Films have already been received from Spain, Australia, South Africa, Cameroon, New York, Las Vegas and others.
“We will have a combination of films that were submitted and films that we will be inviting as well,” said Sandy Moul, director of publicity for the festival.
The group is still shoring up the program for the festival, which is slated to have movie screenings for 12 hours each day at the GardenWalk’s CinemaFusion Theater.
Showcases will include the best in horror, family films, regional filmmakers and others.
Supporters
The festival is the brainchild of Joshua Bednarsky, a New York actor who arrived in Orange County in 2009. He believed Anaheim would be the perfect location for a film festival and sought out Jo Moulton, founder of the Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival, to help launch it.
“(Bednarsky) was really persistent and, through various connections, managed to get this off the ground with a lot of local support,” Moul said.
Several high-profile companies including the Disneyland Resort, the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau, Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes Inc. and the Anaheim White House restaurant, have signed on to sponsor events related to the festival.
“After Disneyland signed on, it just snowballed from there as everyone hopped on,” Moul said.
The festival will compete—although on a smaller scale—with the Newport Beach International Film Festival, which was held in April.
The Newport Beach festival showcased more than 350 films to more than 30,000 attendees.
Organizers of the Anaheim festival are trying to secure some larger studio films to premiere at the event.
“We hope the lead actors and actresses will make an appearance as well to bring the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood premiere,” Moul said.
The festival’s venue has seen a little trouble this year after defaulting on loan payments. A unit of New York-based Related Cos. took over management of the troubled Anaheim GardenWalk in April.
San Diego-based Excel Realty Holdings, the developer of GardenWalk, lost ownership of the outdoor mall at an auction that saw no bidders and caused the mall to revert back to lender Citigroup Inc.
“They seem to be resolving everything between the management and investors,” Moul said.
The mall’s upscale CinemaFusion Theater—where many of the festival’s films will be viewed—also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April.
The original owners, Newport Beach-based Sanborn Theatres Inc., handed over operations to San Diego-based theater company UltraStar Cinemas in July.
“UltraStar is excited to get in there and help host this event,” Moul said. “The festival wasn’t in any danger of not happening.”
The five-day festival will include master classes and workshops taught by industry professionals.
There also will be an awards ceremony that will take place inside Disney California Adventure Park.
The award ceremony will take place in the Hollywood Backlot at California Adventure where up to 1,000 attendees are expected to appear for the inaugural award ceremony.
Festival organizers are looking to engage the community’s youth via the Anaheim International Film Festival Youth Education Program.
They are working with the Orange County Department of Education and Anaheim teachers to host screenings and workshops aimed at students.
The festival also will feature films from around the county submitted by students at Chapman University in Orange and the University of California, Fullerton.
