COLCOA stands for City of Lights, City of Angels which perfectly describes its bringing together of the French and American film industries– with strong industry support from both continents.
This year’s event will showcase a record 86 films, television series, digital series and virtual reality programs– most of which will be in competition for awards given out by the festival, considered the largest dedicated to French films and series worldwide.
With the entertainment industry’s renewed focus on gender parity as a result of the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements, COLCOA is also doing its part.
“Through its different competitions, we are proud to dedicate this year’s programming of COLCOA to women, both in their role in the making of the films and series, and their central roles in the majority of the stories selected this year,” said François Truffart, COLCOA’s Executive Producer and Artistic Director. “Concretely, we will also introduce a new series called Women Make History. We will dedicate a day to first films made by female writers and directors; our Focus on a Filmmaker day will be offered to writer, director, actor Mélanie Laurent; and one of our panels will address the role of women in the French film industry.”
Nearly 40 feature films and documentaries will compete for the cinema awards beginning on opening night with the North American premiere of writer/director Eric Barbier’s Promise at Dawn, an adaptation of author Romain Gary’s autobiography starring Charlotte Gainesbourg and Pierre Niney.
There are also awards for television, shorts and web series.
COLCOA attendees will get to experience virtual reality in the VR Corner on the weekend of April 28. As the market for VR continues to expand, five films representing the medium will be featured.
The popular COLCOA High School screening program will make a return engagement to the festival. Over five days, more than 3,000 Southern California students and teachers are invited to attend free screenings and conversations and participate in a student film critic contest. Celebrating its 11th year, this program is produced in partnership with ELMA (European Languages and Movies in America), with the support of AATF-SC (American Association of Teachers of French – Southern California). Additionally, master classes will take place at several film schools across the city with the support of the Cultural services of the French Embassy in the US and ELMA.
The theaters at the DGA have been appropriately renamed during the fest. Screenings will take place in theaters christened as Renoir, Truffaut and Melville.
