The Liberty Film Festival
The Liberty Film Festival® (LFF) was founded in July of 2004 by independent filmmakers Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty to foster free speech and a diversity of ideas in the film community. With annual events held in West Hollywood, along with numerous screenings, panel discussions, and symposia, the Liberty Film Festival quickly established itself as the premier organization for freedom-oriented conservative, libertarian, and independent filmmakers in America.
The festival screened over 80 films between 2004 and 2008, of which almost fifty were premieres and approximately thirty achieved distribution. Festival events attracted approximately 12,500 attendees, and received extensive coverage in the national and international media. The LA Times, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Politico, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Human Events, and Townhall.com all covered the festival; the LFF was also featured numerous times on ABC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, AMC, CSPAN, NPR, and also on the U.K.’s BBC, French Canal Plus, Japanese NHK, Italian RAI, and Dutch national TV.
Best Film winners at the Liberty Film Festival included “In the Face of Evil: Reagan’s War in Word and Deed,” “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” and “Border War.” The LFF is also committed to celebrating Hollywood’s classic movie heritage, and hosted tributes to directors Cecil B. DeMille, Raoul Walsh, John Ford, and Fritz Lang, to actors John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, and Charlton Heston, and to novelist Ayn Rand.
The LFF’s original on-line film magazine Libertas®, founded in January of 2005 by Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty, became a widely read and influential blog in the film world. New York Times film critic A.O. Scott called Libertas “insightful as well as provocative,” and LA Times film columnist Patrick Goldstein called Libertas “a must read” in his 2006 Feature on the site and on the Liberty Film Festival. In 2007, Libertas was voted one of the top three culture blogs on the internet during the 2007 Weblog Awards.
The Liberty Film Festival and Libertas went on hiatus in the summer of 2008, with Libertas returning in its current form in the Spring of 2010. There are plans for the Liberty Film Festival to reemerge in the future. In 2009 Apuzzo and Murty teamed to produce the independent feature film “Kalifornistan.”
Digital filmmaking technologies and the internet have democratized filmmaking, and now all those who wish to express themselves artistically in the cinema can do so. The Liberty Film Festival encourages those who would like to chart a new direction in filmmmaking to pick up cameras and show the world new and compelling artistic visions. As a special note, we would like to remind everyone that the Liberty Film Festival® and Libertas® trademarks are solely and exclusively owned by Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty, and that they have ongoing plans for the LFF and Libertas that will be announced in the future.
LFF Mailing Address:
The Liberty Film Festival
P.O. Box 4522
Palos Verdes, CA 90274
Please note: The LFF and Libertas are not currently accepting any unsolicited screenplays, books, manuscripts, posters, T-shirts, CDs or other materials of that kind. All such items will be discarded unopened. Otherwise, we welcome letter correspondence and DVDs of films, although we cannot guarantee that we will be able to review or promote such films. Please include a return address, an email address and phone number so that we may respond to your inquiry.
