DOC LA. Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival

Presented by the renowned Parajanov-Vartanov Institute, DOC LA - Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival - screens and awards outstanding films by students, emerging filmmakers and established masters of American and World cinema, and furthers the mission of the institute’s annual awards established in 2010.

In addition to Documentaries, we also program Fiction, Animation, Experimental and Music Videos in an official section of the festival STORYTELLA. We are also enthusiastic about unusual, strange and unclassifiable films as the institute that presents the festival is named after the revered nonconformists Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990) and Mikhail Vartanov (1937-2009), who overcame censorship, persecution and low budgets, and earned praise for their daring point of view from many of cinema’s greatest luminaries, such as Godard, Coppola and Tarkovsky, and inspired the likes of Madonna and Lady Gaga. The festival’s programmer is their disciple and UCLA alum Martiros Vartanov who was a juror and a curator at festivals in Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Busan, and worked on the restoration of the masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates.



Parajanov-Vartanov Institute and DOC LA awardees, alums and guests include (Oscar) Academy Award ® winners Martin Scorsese, Emma Thompson, Werner Herzog, Marion Cotillard, Susan Sarandon, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, as well as Emilio Rivera, Usher, Ice-T, Joe Berlinger, Errol Morris, Ross Kauffman, Jem Cohen, Alfred Molina, William Baldwin, Angela Bassett, Mark Ruffalo, Pierce Brosnan, Dennis Quaid, Liam Neeson, Christoph Waltz, John Malkovich, Keith David, Michael Weatherly, Michelle Rodriguez, Woody Harrelson, Gerard Butler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Seth Rogen, Moby, Stefania Spampinato, Steven Ogg, Angourie Rice, Matilda De Angelis, Alana Haim, Virginie Ledoyen, Dave Stewart, Jeremy Renner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan, French icon Jean Vigo, Olympic Gold medalist Allyson Felix, and members of Grammy winning rock bands Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, and System Of A Down.