It was a long drive down from Glendale, but even after the hour plus on the road, it was worth it. The air was cool and the theater sparkling with lights. After grabbing my filmmaker badge and tickets, I met up with the programmer for my shorts program. We chatted a bit about the festival, and I met a few more staff members. Then, spotting the rapidly growing line to get into the theater, I joined the crowd.

The opening film as “Lymelight,” directed by Derick Martini. It’s one of these tragicomic family dramas often associated with Indie films and Film Festivals. But it was worth all the speeches and advertisements to see some excellent performances from Alec Baldwin, playing a less classy version of Jack Donaghy, Kieran Culkin, surly with the right amount of goofiness, Emma Roberts, as the consummate girl next door and a surprising Timothy Hutton, tragic simply by expression, and with incredibly lopsided hair.

I was expecting a panel, a Q&A or some introductions when the lights went up; but instead the crowd got up and streamed for the exit in search of the after party.

The party was fancy. Sponsored by (among many others) Absolut, there was plenty of alcohol in addition to quite a few restaurants that had booths. I ate 2 “Hawaiian sliders” along with a mango Vodka cocktail that was delicious. For entertainment, there was a fashion show from Bloomingdales and then a salacious burlesque show courtesy of Zumanity. There were plenty of hoots and hollers from the decked out crowd, who by that time had enough free liquor in them to unashamedly push closer to get a better look at the writhing flesh of the adult version of Cirque du Soleil.

All in all, it was quite a night.