The L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival (LACS) is an annual film festival

Film festival

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

 held in the spring in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. LACS programs short films exclusively in the comedy

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 genre, and is the largest festival of its kind in the United States. During the four-day event, between 60-70 comedy short films from around the world are screened at the festival's main venue in Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

, with additional industry panels and parties taking place at various locations around the city.

The festival mission states that LACS is "dedicated to introducing the newest and hottest comedic talent to the industry, and helping them make the connections they need to take their careers to the next level."

History

L.A. Comedy Shorts was founded in 2009 by Gary Anthony Williams

Gary Anthony Williams

Gary Anthony Williams is an American screen actor who most recently appeared in Weeds and Boston Legal. Additionally, he is known for his recurring role on Fox's Malcolm in the Middle as "Abe" Kenarban. He has also been known for the comedy series Blue Collar TV as a regular cast member...

 of Boston Legal

Boston Legal

Boston Legal is an American legal dramedy created by David E. Kelley, which was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for the ABC...

, along with Festival Director Jeannie Roshar and Festival Producer Ryan Higman. The inaugural festival took place March 5th-8th, 2009 at The Downtown Independent Theater in Los Angeles, and was sponsored by Funny Or Die

Funny or Die

Funny or Die is a comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company, Gary Sanchez Productions with original and user-generated content. Funny or Die contains exclusive material from a number of famous contributors and also has its own Funny or Die Team, which creates...

, Atom.com and The Onion

The Onion

The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...

.. Participating celebrities included Mark Hamill

Mark Hamill

Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...

, Aisha Tyler

Aisha Tyler

Aisha N. Tyler is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and author, known for her regular role as Andrea Marino in the first season of Ghost Whisperer and voicing Lana Kane in Archer, as well as her recurring roles in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Talk Soup, and on Friends as Charlie...

, Sean Astin

Sean Astin

Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, voice artist, and producer better known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24...

, and awards show host Adam Carolla

Adam Carolla

Adam Carolla is an American radio personality, television host, comedian, and actor. He currently hosts The Adam Carolla Show, a talk show distributed as a podcast on the ACE Broadcasting Network...

.

L.A. Comedy Scripts

LACS also hosts the L.A. Comedy Scripts Screenplay Competition, which judges feature-length and short comedy screenplays from around the world. L.A. Comedy Scripts finalists and winners are honored at the LACS awards event.

For the 2010 festival, L.A. Comedy Scripts added the half-hour comedy TV pilots category.

2010

• "Commie" Comedy Achievement Award: Missi Pyle
  Missi Pyle
  Andrea Kay "Missi" Pyle is an American actress and singer. She has appeared in several films, including Galaxy Quest, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Big Fish, 50 First Dates, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay...
  
  
• Funny Or Die's "Best-of-Fest" Grand Prize Award: The Action Hero's Guide to Saving Lives, directed by Justin Lutsky
• Best Comedy Shortie-Short (under 5 minutes): Traffic Signals, by Lori Elberg & Tanya Bershadsky
• Atom.com's Best Comedy Animated Short: The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger, directed by Bill Plympton
  Bill Plympton
  William "Bill" Calvin Plympton is an American animator, former cartoonist, director, screenwriter and producer best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short Your Face. and his series of shorts Guard Dog, Guide Dog, Hot Dog and Horn Dog.- Biography :Bill Plympton was born in...
  
  
• Atom.com's Best Comedy Short: Blood From a Stone, directed by Bill Palmer
• Film Festival Audience Award: A Short Film, directed by Rick Williamson
• L.A. Comedy Scripts Best Comedy Short Screenplay: Cuckoo, written by Kristi Barnett
• L.A. Comedy Scripts Best Comedy Feature Screenplay: Super Fun Time Happy Pizza, written by Dennis Xenos & Rob Nardecchia
• L.A. Comedy Scripts Best Half-Hour Comedy TV Pilot: Upstate, written by Charlie Robinson

2009

• "Commie" Comedy Achievement Award: Bobcat Goldthwait
  Bobcat Goldthwait
  Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film and television director. He is commonly known for his energetic, ravenous stage personality, his dark, acerbic black comedy, and his gruff but high-pitched voice.- Early life :Goldthwait was born in Syracuse,...
  
  
• Funny Or Die's "Best-of-Fest" Grand Prize Award: Captain Coulier: Space Explorer, directed by Lyndon Casey
• AtomicWedgie's Best Comedy Shortie-Short (under 5 minutes): The Swear Police, directed by Joe Wilson
• Atom.com's Best Comedy Animated Short: Distraxion, directed by Mike Stern
• Atom.com's Best Comedy Short: Daryl From OnCar, directed by David McWhirter
• AtomicWedgie's Film Festival Audience Award: A Bit of Counseling, directed by Deb Hiett & Richard Kuhlman
• L.A. Comedy Scripts Best Comedy Short Screenplay: Danny Caldwell Goes to Hell, written by Austin Sheeley
• L.A. Comedy Scripts Best Comedy Feature Screenplay: The Rock Thrower, written by Ted Farnath