What You Need to Know This Year

11:02 PM PDT 6/15/2011 by Noela Hueso

Rebecca Yeldham and David Ansen keep it downtown and diverse enough for everyone.

Producer Rebecca Yeldham (The Kite Runner, The Motorcycle Diaries) and David Ansen, Newsweek's former veteran film critic, have good reason to be excited about the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival. The executive director and artistic director, respectively, saw the 17-year-old event draw its biggest numbers in 2010 (a more than 8% increase over 2009), when it moved to downtown L.A. from Westwood, and they have high hopes for this year's edition, beginning June 16. They spoke recently with THR.