Festivals

A trio of splashy, late entries to the Los Angeles Film Festival were announced Wednesday: the mega-budget summer movies “Man of Steel” and “Monsters University,” as well as an in-person discussion with indie auteur Spike Jonze that will include footage from his upcoming feature, “Her.”   On June 12 -- one day before LAFF kicks off at downtown Los Angeles' L.A. Live in earnest and two days before the film's release -- the festival...

Angel City Brewery's Heritage Festival Where: 216 S. Alameda St., L.A. When: Sat. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Price: Free to enter, beer $6 Info: http://www.angelcitybrewery.com

Once a barroom outlier compared with its standing in other West Coast cities, craft beer has become a Los Angeles fixture. Breweries have been sprouting like hops across town in recent years, and the latest in the field is the new incarnation of Angel City Brewery. Located in the historic John A. Roebling building in the downtown L.A. Arts District, the brewery came under new ownership early last year and is finally swinging its doors open to a thirsty public on a regular basis. To celebrate, owner Alan Newman and brew master Dieter Foerstner are throwing on Saturday what they hope will become the first of many annual spring parties.

Recently signed to the Universal label, La Santa Cecilia this year released its first single off the new album "El Hielo (Ice)," a deceptively easygoing bossa nova-infused tune that personalizes the plight of undocumented migrants. The plaintive ballad draws on the experiences of some of the band members, all children of Latin American immigrants. The band will perform at the annual Los Lobos Cinco de Mayo festival at the Greek Theatre on a bill headlined by the iconic East L.A. rock group that also includes Los Super 7, Willie G of Thee Midniters, Kinky, Robert Randolph and El Chicano.

In conjunction with Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival opens Thursday night in West Hollywood, kicking off 10 days of screenings, panel discussions, seminars and social events. Now in its 29th year, the festival showcases new work by emerging and established Asian American filmmakers and also surveys the national cinemas of countries such as China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Evan Jackson Leong's basketball documentary "Linsanity," which chronicles the overnight success of the Taiwanese American NBA player Jeremy Lin (and features L.A.'s own Kobe Bryant as a villain)

Veteran Southland roots rocker Dave Alvin, sonic experimentalists String Theory and Grammy-winning Latin rock group Quetzal top the bill for Saturday's free all-day South Pasadena Eclectic Music Festival and Art Walk . Alvin -- a member of the Blasters, X, the Knitters and an acclaimed solo singer-songwriter-guitarist -- will headline the Carnegie Stage at the South Pasadena Public Library, which also will host jazz pianist John Proulx, the...

Downtown Santa Monica, Santa Monica Place and Brit Week are hosting a two-day festival celebrating all things British this weekend. The event will span three blocks along the Promenade from Wilshire to Broadway and include the main stage at Santa Monica Place. Organizers promise a variety of environmentally-friendly vendors, gardens designed by landscape architects, live entertainment, speakers and demonstrations. Among the highlights: --British designer Duncan Quinn is slated to park his double-decker mobile tailoring truck and showcase bespoke and tailored men's clothing.

"Only God Forgives," Nicolas Winding Refn's follow-up to "Drive", will have its North American premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival next month. Starring Ryan Gosling as an American expat living in Bangkok, Thailand, the film joins the critically acclaimed "Fruitvale Station" as one of two Gala screenings for the festival, which runs June 13-23 at L.A. Live's Regal Cinemas downtown. "The Way, Way Back," a comedy starring Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Sam Rockwell, will close the festival.

The organizers of the LéaLA Spanish-language book fair want to make the annual event in Los Angeles one of the biggest book gatherings in the United States. The schedule announced Tuesday for this year's event makes the organizers' ambitions clear: They want it to be a literary event with gravitas, but also one that draws the Spanish-speaking masses. There will be rock and rollers, writers in English, publishing houses from as far away as Buenos Aires and Madrid, and lots of events for kids, said LeaLA director Marisol Schulz . A former book editor whose writers included the late Carlos Fuentes, Schulz said the fair expects to draw 100,000 people to the three-day event at the Los Angeles Convention Center from May 17-19.

Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner , joined in comedy history as the 2,000-year-old man and his interviewer, and joined at the hip in life, made a tandem, two-headed appearance Monday afternoon at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. With Judd Apatow as moderating host, it was the inaugural event in #Comedyfest, a collaboration between Twitter and Comedy Central that will continue through Friday and includes the premiere of the new series "Inside Amy Schumer" (Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. ET, with star Schumer live-tweeting)