The Sundance Film Festival, held every January in Park City, Utah, has become one of the most well-known celebrations of independent filmmaking in the world. This year, as an extension of the festival’s NEXT category, which exhibits independent films with innovative approaches to storytelling, the Sundance Institute hosted the inaugural NEXT WEEKEND program over the past four days at Sundance Cinemas in Los Angeles. Read more...

Photo: The Sundance Institute’s inaugural “NEXT WEEKEND” program featured a screening of artistic documentary “Cutie and the Boxer” at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater.

Los Angeles is often the setting of Hollywood hopefuls trying to make it big in the film industry. “In a World…,” Lake Bell’s comedic first feature film, breaks away from this mold to show the viciously competitive, male-dominated world of voice-over acting, which is apparently a big deal. Read more...

Look back on all the buddy cop movies through the years. Go ahead. There’s quite a long list of great ones: “Beverly Hills Cop,” “48 Hrs.,” “Lethal Weapon,” “Bad Boys” and (who could forget) “Rush Hour.” Well, “2 Guns” is the antithesis of all of them, taking the typical Laurel and Hardy odd-couple relationship that normally holds true in the buddy cop genre and turning it on its head. Read more...

Moviegoers nationwide are being terrorized by “The Conjuring,” this summer’s latest horror blockbuster. Based on the accounts of two real-life families, “The Conjuring” recounts the tale of the Perrons as they move into their new Rhode Island farmhouse plagued with paranormal activity, and the Warrens, a pair of demonologists who move in to help the terrorized family. Read more...

Photo: Shanley Caswell plays Andrea Perron, the family’s eldest daughter, in “The Conjuring,” a horror film by James Wan.

Woody Allen's recent output has been a mixed bag to say the least, so much so that any mildly diverting effort – à la 2011's “Midnight in Paris”– is enough for most to declare the comeback season in full swing. Read more...