Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced today that esteemed Newsweek film critic David Ansen is joining the organization as Artistic Director of the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival.  
Senior Programmer Doug Jones has been promoted to Associate Director of Programming for the Los Angeles Film Festival.

"As a consummate movie lover, David is one of the finest critics thinking, watching, and writing about movies today.  To have David join our exceptional programming team is a dream come true, and will only further ignite the excitement building around LAFF, its direction, and its future," said Festival Director Rebecca Yeldham.   

"I'm tremendously excited to join the Los Angeles Film Festival.  For me, it's a chance to put into action my many years as a movie critic at Newsweek, an experience I hope will contribute to LAFF's success as a world-class cultural event in Los Angeles," said Ansen.  "LAFF is uniquely positioned to draw on the industry's history and broad range of talent to create a festival that will not only showcase the best new work from around the world, but provide unforgettable filmgoing experiences for the audience."

"With one of the most respected tastemakers joining forces with a talented producer like Rebecca, we continue to build a top-notch team that makes the Los Angeles Film Festival a platform for nurturing the diversity of films being made and bringing them to the everyday film goer," said Film Independent Executive Director Dawn Hudson.  

David Ansen was Newsweek's movie critic from 1977 through 2008, and continues to write for them as a Contributing Editor.  

David Ansen-Credit Larry Laszlo

He's written several documentaries for television on Greta Garbo (TNT), Groucho Marx (HBO), Elizabeth Taylor (PBS), and the Ace Award winning All About Bette (Bette Davis) for TNT.  He was on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival from 1990 to 1998, and has served on film festival juries around the world, including the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2009.  Ansen is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and is a three-time winner of the Page One Award from the Newspaper Guild of New York.  He's written for New York Times, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Film Comment, Interview, Cineaste, and other publications.  Ansen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Harvard.

Doug Jones has been with Film Independent since 2002 when he joined as Senior Programmer for the Los Angeles Film Festival.  

He has written on film and the festival circuit for indieWIRE, Film Comment, Twitch, flatbed, and other publications.  Jones is currently on the nominating committee for the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking.  Previously, he curated films for the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis, the Mill Valley Film Festival in Northern California, the Noise Pop Film Festival in San Francisco.
From 1996 to 2001, Jones was Film and Video Programmer for the San Francisco Film Society and San Francisco International Film Festival.  Jones found his first job working in film at age 14 behind the concession stand of the Hollywood Theater in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  He then went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Studies from Metropolitan University, followed by a few years working in film production.  

The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival runs June 17 through June 27, and is presented by the Los Angeles Times.