The movie, "Our Very Own," which was filmed in Shelbyville last year, has its world premiere tonight at the Los Angeles Film Festival. From left are stars Hilarie Burton, Michael McKee, Jason Ritter, Autumn Reeser and Derek Carter. (GADA Films) [Click to enlarge]

Those were the words of Nancy June Brandon, who is just one of several from Shelbyville who left for Hollywood Tuesday morning to attend the world premiere of the movie "Our Very Own" which was shot here last year.

The film was conceived by writer/director and Shelbyville native Cameron Watson and is a semi-autobiographic tale set in Shelbyville in 1978 starring Allison Janney, Keith Carridine and Cheryl Hines, along with rising stars Jason Ritter, Autumn Reeser, and Hilarie Burton.

Brandon, Debra Oberchain, Janice Cole, her daughter Elizabeth (each of whom has a small role in the movie), along with Brandon's daughter Lisa Neese of Shelbyville, Eddie Watson from Columbia -- Cameron Watson's brother -- and Eddie's daughter Ellen are all heading out to Los Angeles for tonight's premiere.

The movie will be screened for the first time tonight in Hollywood at the Director's Guild of America Theatre 1 at 7 p.m. and then tomorrow at 5 p.m. at the Laemmle Sunset 1.

Watson told the Times-Gazette in May that the Shelbyville premiere date is slated to take place "immediately after the film festival ... absolutely in July."

Watson said last month that several test screenings had already been conducted with audiences and the writer/director said the reaction was very positive.

"Everyone that has seen it falls in love with Shelbyville," Watson said, adding that his home town should watch out ... Shelbyville may become a "hot tourist spot" because of the film.

The film is starting to receive more media attention as well. This morning's Los Angeles Times featured a story on the movie, focusing on the fact that Watson coaxed Mary Badham, who played Scout in the classic film, "To Kill A Mockingbird," out of retirement after 39 years away from the acting business.

According to the L.A. Times, it was Watson's dream to lure Badham to come out of retirement, stating that "as a child 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was an important film to me and I always thought ... she gave the greatest childhood performance ever."

Badham was tracked down in Monroeville, Ala., by Watson's casting agent and she first thought that casting agent's call was a joke.

"He was just the sweetest," she told the Times. "He said, 'May I please send you the script? I don't want anyone else to do this.' It was just a sweet little script and I didn't find anything the least bit objectionable about it. And when he told me Keith Carradine was going to be in it I thought, 'OK.' It was a little lark."

"Our Very Own" is listed in the festival's narrative competition along with a host of other independent films. The narrative competition is comprised of films, made by emerging U.S. filmmakers, that will compete for the Target Filmmaker Award, which carries a $50,000 unrestricted grant, the largest cash prize bestowed by a major U.S. film festival. Films screened in this section also compete for the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.

According to the description of the film on the festival website, the movie is set in 1978, and "very little is happening in Shelbyville. For Clancy and his friends, it looks like just another summer of hanging out and good-natured make-out sessions. When the rumor spreads that hometown-girl-gone-Hollywood Sondra Locke may be coming home for a visit, the teens decide that she holds the key to their escape from small town life."

However, while Clancy and his friends try to come up the perfect plan to impress Locke, the boy is distracted by the drama unfolding in his own home, as his mother tries to hold on to a marriage that's slipping away. Badham's character has a pivotal encounter with Carradine, who plays the troubled father of one of the teenagers, played by Jason Ritter.

"Our Very Own" is described as "a heartfelt film about the rhythms of life in a rural town, where a teen's taste of freedom is wholly dependent on borrowing Mom's car."

"The two storylines--one bursting with the enthusiasm of youth and the blossoming of first love, the other quietly contemplating failed dreams and familial responsibilities--work in concert to produce a heartfelt film about the elusive nature of dreams," the festival site says.

Watson has described the movie as a family film, with no nudity or violence, but containing some dark themes.

A number of locals are cast as extras in the film, including dance instructor Brandon, Scott Cunningham, who is now a New York actor, and Obenchain. Cunningham and Obenchain were fellow drama students with Watson at Shelbyville Central High School during the time period in which the movie is set. Obenchain's niece, Vanderbilt student Elizabeth Cole, has a non-speaking role as Sondra Locke.

Stars Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow and Elijah Wood are serving as honorary festival chairs for the L.A. Film Festival and director Sydney Pollack will serve as guest director. Musician, film composer, and actor THE RZA, the chief producer and founding member of the legendary hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, will serve as artist in residence for the festival.