As Laker fans were spilling out of the Staples Center to riot in the streets, celebrities, cinephiles, and members of the press were lining up a few hundred feet away for the start of the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival.

For the first time, the annual showcase took place in its new downtown venue at L.A. Live’s enormous Regal Cinemas complex. It’s a gorgeous, brand new complex with plenty of room to hold the festival alongside a regular screening schedule. In addition to gala red carpet screenings for new mainstream films like “Cyrus” and “Twilight: Eclipse,” the festival also offered a nice sampler of international films, documentaries, discussions with filmmakers, independent films, shorts, and even programs that compiled unique music videos.

The Narrative Award, given to one of nine films in competition, went to the Danish film “A Family (En Familie).” Pernille Fischer Christensen directed this drama about a family dealing with their impending future upon hearing the news that their charismatic patriarch has fallen ill.

J. Clay Tweel won the Documentary Award for his film “Make Believe,” which follows six teenage magicians as they prepare for a competition at the World Magic Seminar. The new education documentary from “Inconvenient Truth” filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, entitled “Waiting for Superman,” premiered at the festival as well. It was met with a great deal of praise and buzz; however it was not in competition for any of the festival’s awards.

Many of the films being screened were eligible for the Audience Award. British writer, director, and comedian Christopher Morris received this prize for his film “Four Lions.” The film is sure to attract plenty of attention, both positive and negative, upon its official release. It uses humor and satire to depict the training of four bumbling wannabe jihad terrorists.

In addition to screening upcoming films, a few filmmakers turned out as well for exclusive discussions. Christopher Nolan talked about his soon to be released “Inception” and also screened Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” citing it as a strong visual inspiration for his upcoming film.

Another film deemed as a “must see” was the Japanese crowd pleaser “Golden Slumber,” and it wound up becoming a festival favorite. Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura, “Golden Slumber” falls into the “wrongfully accused fugitive on the run” subgenre, but is so off the wall and all over the place in the best way possible that leaving it at just that is a disservice.

Friendly, mild-mannered deliveryman Aoyagi meets an old friend for lunch one day, only to suddenly find that he is being framed for the assassination of the Japanese prime minister. A manhunt ensues, and Aoyagi has to rely on many clever tricks to survive, as well as the help from a few old college classmates, a crippled ex-gangster, and a spry, cheerful young serial killer amongst others.

Tonally, the film is a bit all over the place, but gets by on its many charms. There are numerous twists and payoffs throughout. It also takes its title from the Beatles song “Golden Slumbers,” which recurs several times over the course of the film and is actually integral to the story.

During the week, the festival also hosted a few select outdoor screenings at the John Ford Amphitheater. Neil Marhsall’s upcoming Roman soldier epic “Centurion,” starring Michael Fassbender, was screened on one of the nights and earned a pretty solid amount of buzz. Another outdoor screening featured the world premiere of Alexandre Phillipe’s Star Wars documentary “The People vs. George Lucas.”

Fans from all over the world were interviewed for the film, which chronicles the love/hate relationship that Star Wars die hards have developed with its creator over the past fifteen years or so. There are many entertaining moments that arise from the cavalcade of eccentric fans that Phillipe puts on display. The problem with this documentary, however, is that all it really does is outline all of the many complaints and praises that people have been talking about for years regarding Star Wars. There is really nothing new or insightful to be gained.

The festival also provided a venue to screen the premiere of the Netflix “Find Your Voice” Competition winner. Netflix, along with sponsors such as Kodak and Panavision, gave a filmmaking grant to competition winner Philip Flores for his script “The Wheeler Boys.”

Much like HBO’s failed Project Greenlight series, a film that came from a competition winner turns out to be amateur and very average at best. “The Wheeler Boys” is about two brothers, one a high school senior, the other a freshman. The freshman longs to follow in his brother’s footsteps and join his secret society “The Kings,” which is a group of seniors who assign points to freshman girls and then earn those points by sleeping with them.

It is one of those films that tries hard to be daring and provocative in its subject matter at every turn, but in the end is simply just boring and idiotic. While the screening was going on, the film was simultaneously available in homes via Netflix Instant Streaming.

Overall, the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival provided a massive buffet of upcoming things to be excited about in cinema. The strongest films coming out of the fest are “Cyrus” and “Golden Slumber.” Even if the swanky new downtown digs are sort of a pain to get to (but then again, so is everything in L.A.), they are a terrific venue and the city can benefit from having the festival there in years to come.