Woody Allen waits anxiously to introduce To Rome with Love at the Regal theatre in downtown LA; there are echoes of the young, nervous standup who performed against his will at the start of his career. But this is the opening night of the Los Angeles film festival, as well as the movie's North American premiere, so within nanoseconds of Allen striding up to the mic the crowd are on their feet.
"I was blessed with a great cast. A cast I'm counting on to make me look good," he stutters, endearingly, before introducing Penélope Cruz, Alison Pill, Greta Gerwig, Simona Caparrini and Alessandra Mastronardi. "If you like the picture, I'm thrilled. If you hate it and think it was a waste of time coming, don't let me know because I get depressed too easily." And with that quintessential dollop of east coast neurosis, the festival begins.
With the event kicking off the same day as the celebration parade for the LA Kings ice hockey team (who for the uninitiated have just won the Stanley Cup championship for the first time in 45 years), sports and film fans circled each other in good-natured bewilderment. But unlike the Academy Awards, the LAFF is all about diversity and community.
Stephanie Allain, the festival's director, who produced 2005's Hustle and Flow, and walked the red carpet alongside the likes of Julie Delpy and, erm, Prince Frédéric von Anhalt, explained the 10-day event is "exclusively for everyone". The schedule features an intriguing mashup of indie fare including Alex Karpovsky's Red Flag, Jared Moshé's Dead Man's Burden and Laura Colella's Breakfast with Curtis, as well as Pixar's tent-pole latest, Brave.
Back from a two-day film-makers' jolly at the at the Skywalker Ranch, Allain revealed that while director William Friedkin was a keynote speaker, the main point of the festival was to encourage community. "We want the film-makers to get to know each other. You can tell the difference between the bus ride from the airport to the ranch, and a day later, when it's a lot more raucous."
Much evidence of that camaraderie was on display at the afterparty, held incongruously on top of a car park. The dancing continued into the night but there's a long way to go until Soderbergh's Magic Mike, which closes the gala. Who knows how raucous it will get before then?
