By Justin Oppmann
LA.COM

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What is Method Fest?

The MethodFest film festival is the only film festival in the country that focuses on acting.  We look for story-driven films with breakout performances.  The MethodFest was created because we felt there was such an emphasis on special effects and a big emphasis on big name stars who waltz through performances.  We wanted to return people to what we felt were the core ingredients of great films – outstanding performances and great stories.  That’s what makes films memorable and exciting.

What was the genesis for the festival?

So many of the great actors over the years – Geraldine Page, Sean Penn, Martin Landau, Dustin Hoffman – all came out of the Method school of acting.  They ushered in a modern era of filmmaking.  We believe that the Method school of acting really transformed filmmaking.  The films in the festival have all types of acting, not just Method acting.  We wanted to remind people that what we look for at MethodFest is quality acting.  The choice of the Method name as a moniker really made sense for branding the festival.  We really look for breakthrough performances by young up-and-coming stars or career-defining performances by more established stars.

This is the 10th year of MethodFest.  How has the festival evolved over the last decade?

The festival has evolved – obviously we started small with maybe 100 submissions the first year, if that.  We get over 700 films now submitted to the festival.  Every year the quality of films gets better.  People now come to MethodFest to show films with fine acting, story-driven films and now we have so many discovery films that we are so proud of.  We also have a few major films from big festivals that we mix in.  This year we have The Visitor, which is a great film starring Richard Jenkins by Overture Films.  It played Sundance.  We have Unfinished Sky, a fine film – the best film I saw up at Toronto this year.  We have another film, Diminished Capacity, with Alan Alda.  Alan Alda and Virginia Madsen are just sensational actors.  We also have a discovery film like Crazy, a very strong film with Ali Larter and country and western star Waylon Payne.  Another discovery film is Harrison Montgomery with a lot of great young actors plus Martin Landau in a very fine role.  Every year the reputation of the film just keeps growing,

Do you think that the focus on Method acting skews the films towards darker or more intense material?  You don’t see a lot of Method comedies.

That’s a very good question.  We do have a lot of great dramas in the festival but this year we also have some great comedies.  There’s a film called Running Funny that’s really a fun lighter film sort of a Slackers--type film.  That's playing this year.  We have a great romantic comedy, directed by Helen Hunt, called True Love playing at the festival.  We have a mix but we do skew towards dramas and more serious stories.

Who are you honoring this year?
We are honoring Richard Jenkins.  He’s done over 100 films and he’s the star of The Visitor.  He’ll be receiving the Career Achievement Award.  We are also honoring Melissa Leo who was in Frozen River at Sundance – it just seems like she’s in so many really good films right now – she’s in two films at the festival.  There’s one called Lullaby that’s a U.S.-South African co-production and then she’s in another film we added called The Cake Eaters starring Bruce Dern.  She’s excellent in both those films.  The Cake Eaters was directed by Mary Stuart Masterson.

And when you are not running MethodFest you are a producer?

Yes.  We are in final post on a film called Chamaco.  It’s a boxing-themed film with Martin Sheen, Michael Madsen and a very, very strong mainly Mexican cast.  Also a local actor, Kirk Harris, who is a founder of MethodFest, is in that. 

Is it a challenge for you to go from producing a film to putting on a festival?

It’s all timing.  Right now we are in final post and we’re finishing our film in June so the rest of my team was up in Oregon for meetings over the last couple of days.  It’s a challenge.  It’s really the same thing whether we are putting on events or making a film – there’s a lot to put together and fires that you put out every step of the way.  You just plug forward no matter what.  With a lot of dedication and a lot of passion you transform the world.

What are your hopes for the future of Method Fest?

Within ten years our goal is to be one of the top ten festivals in the country.  I think that the quality of films that we have is in the top ten in the country.  We’ve been lucky, we’ve had people who’ve been there since the start.  We’ve had a core group and great sponsors.  You need to be persistent and tenacious and we have a lot of that at MethodFest.