$50,000.00 Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Film
This is the largest award of ANY U.S. film festival.

$50,000.00 Target Documentary Award for Best Documentary Feature
And again, this is the largest award in this category of ANY U.S. film festival.

Cinecultural Jury Prize for Best Feature
Jury Prize for Best Performance
Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short 
Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short 
Jury Prize for Best Animated Short

But it's not just the Festival jury that gets to pick winners. Each one of you get to have your say as well, thanks to the Audience Awards. You get a chance to vote for what you believe is the best of the best in the categories of film presented. So, when you get handed a ballot at a screening, stop and take a minute to give credit where you think credit is due. It will mean the world to these filmmakers. And the awards for which you are responsible are:

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature 
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature 
Audience Award for Best International Award 
Audience Award for Best Short

So, what's in competition, you ask? Let's take a look at two of most popular categories - Narrative and Documentary Competitions:

NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Analog Days - A group of community college students experience the gentle angst of growing up and moving on in this humorous look at long, late night drives, dead-end jobs and great music to brood by.

Chalk - In hilarious mockumentary style, a group of high school teachers trying to make a difference ride the ups and downs of a school year.

Gretchen - An awkward teenage girl's obsession with the school bad boy lands her in an emotional treatment center in Steve Collins' humorously deadpan yet poignant story of adolescent pains and triumphs.

Ira & Abby - Somehow, magically, after only knowing her for six hours, the perpetually indecisive Ira finds himself engaged to the disarming Abby. If only the rest of their lives could be so perfect.

Islander - When lobster fisherman Eben is forced to turn his back on the sea, he loses everything: his friends, his family, and the only way of life he has ever known. Returning five years later, Eben finds himself an outsider in the place he once called home.

The Lather Effect - Just before the sale of her parents' home, thirty-something Valinda throws an "80s rager" reuniting high school friends for a chance to relive their wild youth and the passions that went with it.

Swedish Auto - Lukas Haas and January Jones star as two loners who connect in this delicately assured study of voyeurism, unexpected love, and the possibilities of escape in a restored Volvo coupe.

Undoing - After mysteriously disappearing one year ago, Samuel returns to the mean streets of Los Angeles'' Koreatown, determined to amend for the mistakes of the past. But balancing revenge with reconciliation is a tricky business in this stylish, character-driven neo-noir.

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Beyond Conviction - In this emotionally engrossing documentary, the victims and imprisoned perpetrators of violent crimes have the opportunity to confront one another and talk through years of pain, grief, and regrets.

The Creek Runs Red - The Creek Runs Red carries us into the heart of Picher, Oklahoma, one of the most toxic places in America thanks to decades of lead mining, to reveal with extraordinary intimacy and insight the full human tragedy of an ongoing environmental catastrophe.

Darkon - Members of a live action role-playing game bring us into their fantasy lives in the make-believe medieval world of Darkon.

Deliver Us From Evil - This powerful exposé of how the Catholic hierarchy allowed a notorious Californian pedophile priest to remain in service for over 30 years is told through interviews with Church officials, the victims and their families, and the abuser himself.

East of Havana - A trio of underground rappers in Cuba struggle to get their music heard while bypassing the official government-sanctioned music industry, an inspiring reminder that the creative drive cannot be stopped.

Inheritance - Oscar-winning documentarian James Moll sheds new light on the Holocaust''s devastating impact when the daughter of a monstrous Nazi officer meets a survivor who experienced her father's brutality first-hand.

Kabul Transit - Diverse residents of Kabul meditate upon the enigmatic present and hopeful future in their ancient war-torn city in this engrossing, wry, and ultimately haunting documentary.

Mario's Story - As a teenager in East Los Angeles, Mario Rocha was sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. Undaunted, Mario, his family, and a steadfast team of advocates have spent more than 10 years fighting for his freedom.

Matthew Barney: No Restraint - In this revealing documentary, audiences get a behind-the-scenes look at enigmatic sculptor-filmmaker Matthew Barney''s latest artistic endeavor, Drawing Restraint 9.

Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater - The portrait of legendary Republican politician Barry Goldwater, as told by his relatives, his admirers, and his critics, serves a compelling homage to an inimitable man and a bygone era of American politics.

A Place to Dance - Enter the wonderland of the Jefferson Orleans dance hall, where big band music still plays every Sunday night as seniors swing to wartime classics.

Tickets are still available for these films and many more. So, check out www.lafilmfest.com. Buy your tickets on line or at the Box Office in Westwood. And remember - your vote counts!