FESTIVAL OVERVIEW City of Lights, City of Angels (COL-COA), A Week of French Film Premieres in L.A., was founded in 1995. The Festival is committed yearly to introduce and promote in Hollywood and the United States the best of current French Cinema. This year’s event will take place from April 11 through 17, 2005 and will present an eclectic series of feature films and shorts, as well as a documentary, and a theme night on Friday. The film selected by the newly created Audience Choice Award will be screened again on Sunday afternoon along with a matinee closing film. To top it all off, please note a new introduction at the Festival this year: French Crepes at the DGA on Saturday afternoon! COL•COA 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. The main objective of the Festival is to showcase the diversity of French Cinema and to promote its talents among professionals (distributors, exhibitors, producers, agents, etc.) This is why the presence, during the event, of feature-film directors is a criterion for the Festival's selection. Each screening is generally followed by a Q & A, and numerous professional meetings are organized throughout the week. All films in the program have been released in France during the last 10 months. They are presented for the first time in Los Angeles, and most of them are US or West Coast Premieres. Since its beginning, the Festival has steadily increased its audience, reaching about 7000 attendees last year. This number includes general audience as well as Industry people. In 2005, with even more movies in the program, we are expecting 8000 viewers.