Sundance Institute announced on Monday [8] that the inaugural Los Angeles event set to run from Aug 8-11 will kick off with an outdoor screening of Chris Smith’s documentary American Movie and Mark Borchardt’s horror film Coven.

Both screenings will take place on Aug 8 at Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery with an introduction by Smith.

American Movie and Coven exemplify what NEXT is all about – an undying passion to make movies against odds and with unfettered creativity,” said Sundance Film festival director of programming Trevor Groth.

“One of the coolest cinematic venues in Los Angeles, Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery is the ideal location to launch NEXT WEEKEND and to bring together all the renegade film lovers to be entertained and inspired by these extraordinary classic independent films.”

“NEXT WEEKEND was created to not only celebrate the current generation of filmmakers working with NEXT sensibilities, but also to reflect on those films that paved the way,” said the Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper.

Additional NEXT WEEKEND programming will be announced next week.