The Return of the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival! October 24-26 in Downtown Los Angeles

by Terry Keefe/Photography by Gregory Weinkauf

This weekend marks the return to Los Angeles of the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival. If you missed our coverage last year of the event, we have to reiterate that this is consistently the greatest film festival on earth for fans of sci-fi and fantasy, as well as nature documentaries, and, heck, science in general. And if you're in any of those categories and in the Los Angeles area, you must get yourself to downtown this weekend. The event is put together and hosted by Frederic Dieudonne & Jean-Christophe Jeauffre, both filmmakers themselves, who come to L.A. each year to produce the event. The European installment of the festival has been running in Paris for the last 15 years. A general theme running through the festival program every year is that it honors the spirit of adventure epitomized in the work of Jules Verne. So, in addition to the spotlights on various famed creators who would also be very much at home at Comic-Con, there is also a large screening and awards segment of the festival dedicated to documentary filmmaking, specifically films about nature and exploration.

Last year's event included tributes to William Shatner, Stan Lee, Ted Turner, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and the cast & creators of "Heroes," all of whom attended in person. The Shatner event at the Shrine Auditorium was sold-out and included the historic sight of Shatner being presented his award by none other than Patrick Stewart. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that both Star Trek captains have appeared on stage together. And to top it off, the evening was MC'd by Malcolm McDowell, whose character of Soran killed Kirk in Star Trek: Generations. So, Kirk, his noted replacement, and his killer: together for the first time! Fan heads nearly exploded.



William Shatner gets his award from Patrick Stewart, as Malcolm McDowell looks on.







That same evening included an exclusive preview screening of the restored Director's Cut of Blade Runner, attended by actors Sean Young, M. Emmet Walsh, Joanna Cassidy, and William Sanderson (J.F. Sebastian in the flesh!). Later in that same week, the night of tribute to Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee was highlighted by the awards presentation from actor Doug Jones, who played the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four 2, as well as Abe Sabian in the Hellboy films. Jones quoted some of the Surfer's famed flowerly dialogue from the original 1960s run of the series, scripted by Lee.

Stan Lee along with Festival Creators Jean-Christophe Jeauffre & Frederic Dieudonne. Both Festival Creators are accomplished filmmakers themselves. Jeauffre directed the documentary WHALES OF ATLANTIS, narrated by the great Christopher Lee. Dieudonne directed the documentary EXPLORERS: FROM TITANIC TO THE MOON, which stars James Cameron and Buzz Aldrin.

This year's festival includes a night on tribute to Roy E. Disney on Friday evening, including a screening of Steamboat Willie. On Saturday evening, there will be a tribute to "Battlestar Galactica" and series creator Ron Moore, with special guest Edward James Olmos, otherwise known to fans of the show as Commander Adama, (and to we older folks as Lt. Castillo of Miami Vice!). Sunday evening will see the fest wrap up with a tribute to the original Planet of the Apes, including a screening of the film introduced by actress Linda Harrison, who played Nova, the love of Charlton Heston's Taylor, in the film. The primary venues for the festival are the Edison at 108 W. 2nd Street in downtown, and the Imaginasian at 251 S. Main Street.

Check out the website for more information and to purchase tickets at http://www.julesvernefestival.com/

(Below) What other Film Festival has Stan Lee and a whole row of seats reserved for NASA? Only one of the coolest fests on the planet.