French fest goes 9 days to add films
The 19th COLCOA French Film Festival, which will take place April 20-28 at the Directors Guild of America on Sunset Boulevard, is expanding from eight to nine days to showcase a record 68 films, including three world premieres, seven international premieres and 16 West Coast premieres as well as 20 new shorts.
And for the first time, COLCOA is shining a spotlight on films produced for French TV.
Francois Truffart, COLCOA’s executive producer and artistic director, said the festival felt it was necessary to add television to the mix because a “big part of the production, exactly like in the U.S., is dedicated to programs for the small screen. We won’t reduce the cinema side of it. It’s the biggest lineup ever.”
The festival is set to open with the North American premiere of “A Perfect Man,” directed by Yann Gozlan. “It’s a psychological thriller that just opened in France,” Truffart said. “The cast is really amazing. The main character is played by a rising star in France, Pierre Niney. He just won the Cesar for ‘Saint Laurent.’ ”
COLCOA (City of Lights, City of Angels) is also featuring the latest from several established filmmakers, including Anne Fontaine (“Gemma Bovery”), Patrice Leconte (“Do Not Disturb”) and Andre Techine (“In the Name of My Daughter”).
Besides “A Perfect Man,” the film noir series will feature Oscar winner Jean Dujardin’s (“The Artist”) thriller “The Connection” and Cedric Anger’s “Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart,” starring Guillaume Canet as a serial killer who is a cop.
The documentary series includes the West Coast premiere of Laurent BecueRenard’s “Of Men and War,” which chronicles a dozen Iraq war veterans in treatment in California for posttraumatic stress disorder. “It’s a very powerful film and a very unique way to talk about the veterans’ situation and what happens after war,” said Truffart.
Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist”) is the subject of this year’s Focus on a Filmmaker. COLCOA will screen his latest film, the war drama “The Search,” and his 2002 hit comedy, “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.”
COLCOA Classics will include the North American premieres of restorations of Jean Renoir’s 1931 “La Chienne” and Francois Truffaut’s box-office hit “The Last Metro” (1980).
For the complete lineup and more information, go to www.colcoa.org .