Malibu Celebration of Film showcase to return in the fall

The Malibu Celebration of Film is back for a second year and will showcase award-winning festival films from Sept. 26 through 30.

MCOF is not a film festival as such but a celebration of independent films that have won previous awards at festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin and others.

Malibu's 2006 high school division FILMSCOOL winner Ethan Kuperberg of Agoura Hills will produce and direct the Malibu Celebration of Film's 2007 festival trailer.

Film Festival veteran Nancy Collet recently joined the Malibu Celebration of Film as artistic director. Collet will work with executive director Kim Jackson to select award-winning festival films from around the world to screen at the event.

Over the past four years, Jackson has served as festival operations manager, programmer and special events director for film festivals, including Tribeca Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, Freedom Cinema Festival and The Global Peace Film Festival. In 2006 she launched the inaugural Staten Island Film Festival and The Malibu Celebration of Film.

As a New York production coordinator and producer, Jackson's recent feature credits include "Inside Man," directed by Spike Lee and starring Clive Owen, Denzel Washington and Jodi Foster; "Munich," directed by Steven Spielberg; and "Click," starring Adam Sandler and directed by Frank Coraci.

Collet joined the American Film Institute's FEST as programming coordinator in 1997. She was promoted to program manager and was tapped as director of programming in 2000, overseeing seven AFI FEST editions.

The Malibu film event screens award-winning films by invitation only.

The MCOF Advisory Board consists of members from the Malibu community, including David Arquette, Roger Corman, Courtney Cox, Norman Jewison, Tea Leoni, Ali MacGraw and Grace Slick.

MCOF will screen approximately 40 awardwinning features, documentaries, shorts and animated films during the fiveday event.

With audiences estimated up to 1,000 per screening, MCOF will show films at several locations such as Malibu Hollywood Theaters, Malibu Bluffs Park, Malibu Pier, Calamigos Ranch and Pepperdine University.

For more information, visit www.mcof.org.