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This weekend: Patrick Goldstein hosts producers panel in Santa Barbara

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As awards season enters the final stretch, certain faces have become recognizable staples, like critical darling Jeremy Renner, wide-eyed newcomer Anna Kendrick and the ever-charming George Clooney.

But those who helped to propel these actors into the spotlight -- the producers of the films they star in -- are often far less visible.

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This weekend, the producers of six major Oscar-contending films will participate in a panel at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, moderated by The Times’ own Big Picture columnist and blogger, Patrick Goldstein. On Saturday at 11 a.m., Ivan Reitman (‘Up In the Air’), Mark Boal (‘The Hurt Locker’), Lawrence Bender (‘Inglourious Basterds’), Jon Landau (‘Avatar’), Lori McCreary (‘Invictus’) and Jonas Rivera (‘Up’) will gather at the Lobreo Theatre for the aptly titled Movers & Shakers panel.

Goldstein, who has hosted a similar panel at the festival for half a dozen years, said he hopes that the producers will discuss interesting anecdotes from the production process as well as how they handle crisis management.

‘I just try to ask them interesting questions because I’m a real fan of producers,’ he said. ‘I think they often get short shrift partially because producing isn’t a very glamorous job, there are often movies that have 15 producers on them and people outside the business don’t have a clue what a producer does. Many hardly recognize anyone’s name once you get past Jerry Bruckheimer.’

Why else should festivalgoers attend the panel?

‘We’re gonna talk a lot about sex on the movie set, and these guys are in a position to know what goes on,’ Goldstein joked. ‘I would hope people would want to come because they’re going to be surprised by how interesting producers are. After all, they are the ones who really get the movies made.’

Tickets to the event cost $35 each and can be purchased here.

-- Amy Kaufman

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