FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

City of Lights, City of Angels (COL-COA) was founded in 1995. The Festival is committed yearly to introduce and promote the best current of French Cinema in Hollywood and the United States. This year’s event will take place from March 29 through April 3, 2004 and will present an eclectic series of feature films, shorts and a theme night on Friday night.

City of Lights, City of Angels is funded by the Franco-American Cultural Fund – a unique collaborative effort among the Writers Guild of America (West), the Directors’ Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Editors of Music (SACEM). The Festival is also made possible with the support of l’ARP (France’s Association of Authors, Directors and Producers), in collaboration with the French Consulate in Los Angeles and Unifrance Film International.

The main objective of the Festival is to promote French cinema to the United States and to support development of exchange between French directors and writers and their American homologues. This is the reason why the presence of long feature directors is a criterion for the festival selection. Each screening is normally followed by a Q & A for the audience and numerous professional meetings are organized during the entire week of the Festival.

All Films on the program are presented for the first time in Los Angeles and, for some of them, on the West Coast or the United States. Since its beginning, the Festival has steadily increased its audience, reaching over 4000 attendees last year. This number includes general audience as well as Industry people. In 2004 with more movies on the program we are expecting 7000 viewers.