L.A. Film Festival gala screenings announced Steve Carell, from the television show "The Office," accepts his award for favorite...

L.A. Film Festival gala screenings announced

Steve Carell, from the television show "The Office," accepts his award for favorite TV comedy actor at the 2010 People's Choice Awards in Los Angeles January 6, 2010. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

The Steve Carell apocalypse comedy "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" will have its world premiere during the gala screenings at the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival, the festival's organizers said Monday.

The Benh Zeitlin-directed "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and Ava DuVernay 's "Middle of Nowhere" will also run during the gala screenings for the festival, which runs June 14 to June 24.

Additional galas, along with the festival's major lineup, will be announced May 1.

Focus Features' "Seeking for a Friend for the End of the World" stars Carell, Keira Knightley, Adam Brody, Adam Corddry and others in "a humorous, moving and intimate journey against an epic backdrop of Earth's final days." The film is written and directed by "Nick & Norah's Intimate Playlist" scribe Lorene Scafaria, who will also be making her directorial debut. The film will be released nationwide on June 22.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild," meanwhile, tells the story of a six-year-old girl on "the brink of orphanhood" in a bayou community who "believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality." Directed and co-written by Behn Zeitlin, the film, which stars Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry, won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The Fox Searchlight film will be released on June 27.

"Middle of Nowhere," which presents "a portrait of a woman struggling between two worlds and two men in a search for herself," scored writer/director Ava DuVernay a Best Director Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The film, which comes via AFFRM and Participant, will be released on October 12.