Beyond Fest Draws 37,000 as It Becomes L.A.'s De Facto Film Festival

Beyond Fest expects some 37,000 attendees by the end of its 2025 edition, which runs through Oct. 5, making the genre festival one of Los Angeles' biggest cinema events and an answer to the city's long-running lack of a signature film festival.

Los Angeles has historically been difficult terrain for festivals. Over the years, several high-profile events struggled to stay afloat despite strong slates, while dozens of niche festivals filled the gaps for the city's filmgoers. Beyond Fest launched 14 years ago and, through its partnership with the American Cinematheque, built a fan base so devoted that scoring tickets became, in Variety's phrasing, a blood sport for local cinephiles.

Despite its October berth and a slate that includes the "Carrie" TV series and the original "Friday the 13th," the festival has always aimed to go "beyond" obvious genre classics. This year's selection includes new releases such as "Primetime" and "Musk," retrospectives spanning "Hoffa" to "Pan's Labyrinth," and under-the-radar titles screening for free at the Los Feliz 3 cinemas, sponsored by Mubi.

"The inspiration was always to be more than strictly horror, back in those early years," says co-founder Christian Parkes. "(But we also) did 'Dog Day Afternoon.' Our film collections and our film tastes and our DVD closets are wildly varied."

The festival's growth tracks a broader shift: young L.A. audiences have flocked to repertory and classic screenings year-round since the pandemic, with Letterboxd fueling much of the interest. "The rep scene has never been better from an attendance standpoint," says Parkes, citing a recent Robert Eggers marathon. "It's a rite of passage now to see these films. It's not enough to see 'The Witch' in a theater now; I have to see 'The Witch' with Robert Eggers in person, along with 'Lighthouse' and 'Northman' and 'Nosferatu' and to be able to say, 'Yeah, I was there.'"

"Things like Beyond Fest are a signal that things are completely changing," says Juan Devis, president of Film Independent, the L.A.-based organization that runs the Spirit Awards. "Young people are going back to cinema. They're doing it because they love to do it and they do it constantly."

The shorts blocks at the Los Feliz Theater have become an industry scouting ground. "Studios and agencies come through to those blocks and discover filmmakers and pick them up for the next step in their career," says head of programming Evrim Ersoy. The film business, scrambling to find the next Curry Barker or Kane Parsons, is paying attention.

Audiences think nothing of driving an hour from Silver Lake to Santa Monica for an in-demand screening. "Over the last 14 years, (the festival) has built a core dedicated group who are as unhinged as we are," says Ersoy. "They will travel from one side of town to the other — they will go from the Aero in Santa Monica and then be in Los Feliz. I love those people because it speaks to how much they love cinema."

The Cinematheque partnership gives Beyond Fest stable venues: the Aero, the newly reopened Egyptian in Hollywood, the Los Feliz 3 and the Directors Village in Westwood Village. The Cinematheque's artistic director, Grant Moninger, is the festival's co-founder.

"We've kind of grown in parallel (with the Cinematheque)," says Parkes. "We were rough and ragged and loose around the edges at the same time that the Egyptian Theater was — the carpet was peeling, the floors were a little sticky, but that thing was fun. They've matured into this next iteration under Grant Moninger."

This year the Cinematheque revamped its ticketing system, making the scramble for seats somewhat more efficient, though tickets remain scarce. "It's impossible to get tickets for Cannes. It's impossible to get tickets for New York Film Festival. It's impossible to get tickets for Sundance," Parkes says. "The demand to see 'Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother' and 'Primetime' in Los Angeles greatly exceeded the space that we have for these two films to play, so credit to the Cinematheque for completely revamping and creating the completely new ticketing system. You want to see films in a packed theater, and you want to see films with an audience that is excited to be there."

The audience drives the programming, not the other way around, says Parkes: "It's the audience that is really defining it and telling us what they want to see." The festival spends nothing on advertising and promotion. "The intention was just to create a space where like-minded people that didn't know each other could come together and find their people," Parkes says. "Evrim, myself, and the folks at the American Cinematheque are just kind of custodians."

Retrospectives remain central to the program, often with filmmakers present. "There's so much of an emphasis on new films, new films, new films, but these new films don't exist without the old films," says Parkes. "We have M. Night Shyamalan coming to L.A. for the first time in a very long time, and the first time he's done a retrospective in Los Angeles. That's super exciting, not just for us but for audiences. It sold out in an instant."

Film Independent's Devis sees the response as part of a cultural shift. "Young people are looking for something that is authentic, that's communal, that speaks to them, in a way that the last 10 years of film has not. This constant sort of franchises and IPs — that culture that is completely being dethroned right now, in my opinion."

Parkes and Ersoy highlighted titles still to screen:

"Rumble in the Bronx" — "Bob Odenkirk is coming to introduce 'Rumble in the Bronx' because he's a massive Jackie Chan fan," says Ersoy. "To be in that room, to hear him talk about it to an audience who hasn't seen the film — it's a great way to contextualize, and they have a way in, and they connect with the film in a really intense way."

"Donnie Darko" — "We've got 'Donnie Darko' showing at the Aero Theater where it was shot, and that's really exciting."

"Miami Vice" — "We've got this new cut of 'Miami Vice,' which has had a bit of a renaissance recently."

"Welcome to G-Town" — "Two brothers from Glasgow made a film for less than $10,000 straight out of school, and they're here, and it's like early Peter Jackson, very Scottish humor."

"Ten Will" — "There's an L.A. filmmaker, Max DeFalco. $75,000 budget, shot in L.A. He's awesome, a massive future talent."

"Wicker" — "The BookTok people out there are ravenous."

Ken Russell's "The Devils" — "The one that I am most excited for, we screened it about 10 years ago," says Parkes. "Being able to have this moment and bring this thing full circle with two simultaneous screenings in the Egyptian Theatre and in the Aero Theatre, both on 35mm, the West Coast premiere of the 4k restoration director's cut. That's going to be one for the ages, and that is a quintessential Beyond Fest film and a quintessential Beyond Fest moment."

With studios scouting its shorts blocks, a sold-out Shyamalan retrospective and demand that keeps outrunning its venues, Beyond Fest has turned a 14-year partnership with the American Cinematheque into proof that Los Angeles can sustain a festival its audiences define themselves.