USC and UCLA will combine forces Friday to coordinate the eighth annual Transforming Hollywood conference, held in the James Bridges Theater starting at 9 a.m. The event, which aims to educate attendees about the changing landscape of entertainment and technology, is co-directed by Denise Mann, co-head of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television’s Producers Program and professor in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, and Henry Jenkins, provost professor of communication, journalism, cinematic arts and education at USC. Read more...

Photo: The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television will co-present the eighth annual “Transforming Hollywood” event, which will focus on how digital algorithms track online entertainment consumers’ activity and preferences to ensure the success of entertainment companies’ future content. (UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television)

Marta Savina was browsing through a bookstore in Florence, Italy, when she came across the story of Franca Viola. The UCLA directing alumna picked up a book about women who changed history – a subject that already interested her – and randomly opened it to the story of Viola, a Sicilian woman who was the first Italian woman to refuse what was called a “reparatory marriage” to her rapist, even though such marriages often took place in 20th-century Italy. Read more...

Photo: UCLA alumna Marta Savina directed a film based on the true story of Franca Viola, an Italian woman who refused to marry her rapist. She learned about Viola’s story in a bookstore in Florence, Italy. (Miriam Bribiesca/Photo editor)

An annual film festival founded by the International Student Film Association screened 19 films from 15 countries on campus Sunday. UCLA students, staff and alumni helped organize the second annual Los Angeles International Culture Film Festival, which screened 15 original submissions and four acquisitions of films first screened at other festivals. Read more...

Photo: UCLA students and professors viewed international films at the Los Angeles International Culture Film Festival on Sunday at UCLA. The films are about topics such as Marilyn Monroe, a telescope in Hawaii, a Tibetan buddhist monk and first-generation Australian-Lebanese boys. (Erin Rice/Daily Bruin)