Arts & Entertainment

Hollywood Film Fest Names New Executive Director

The festival takes place Oct. 17-21 this year.

The Hollywood Film Festival, now in its 17th year, has named a new executive director. And he comes with plenty of experience.

Jon Fitzgerald is the co-founder and former executive director of Slamdance, American Film Institute Fest, Santa Barbara Film Festival and the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. He also launched CineCause, which helps pair films with relevant causes.

As director, Fitzgerald will be oversee all aspects of the festival, including development, artistic direction, programming, marketing and overall management, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Find out what's happening in Hollywoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He will be working closely with festival founder Carlos de Abreu, and will be in charge of development, artistic direction, programming, marketing and overall Festival management, as well as the Hollywood Gives Back Project, which celebrates the industry’s creative artists who have supported causes around the world.

"I’m very excited to have the chance to build on the success of the Hollywood Film Festival," Indie Wire reported Fitzgerald as saying in a statement. "Filmmakers will have opportunities to expand their connections, leverage entertainment to recognize important causes and broaden their reach to the online community, here in the film capital of the world."

Find out what's happening in Hollywoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to its website, the Hollywood Film Festival was created to bridge the gap between established Hollywood and the global creative community. This year the festival will take place Oct. 17-21 at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood. The deadline to submit entries to the festival is March 20.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here