COLCOA STORY

City of Lights, City of Angels (COLCOA ) was created in 1996 by The Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaborative effort of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, the Writers Guild of America West, and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM). COLCOA is also supported by l’Association des Auteurs-Réalisateurs-Producteurs (ARP), the Film and TV Office of the French Embassy in Los Angeles and UNIFRANCE. 

COLCOA is committed to promoting new French films in the U.S. and to showcasing the vitality and the diversity of French cinema in Hollywood: comedies and dramas, box office hits in France and novelties, first features and films from established writer-directors, documentaries, animation features, short films, art house movies as well as mainstream films. 

In 17 years, 298 new feature films and 179 new shorts have been selected. COLCOA has constantly developed to become a showcase of at least 55 films, with a capacity of 20,000 in 2013 and an occupancy rate of 92%. 

Its exclusive program has made of COLCOA an anticipated date in the industry calendar and now the largest French film festival in the world. Scheduled a few weeks after the Academy Awards® and before the Cannes Film Festival, COLCOA has become a prestigious event in Los Angeles. 

Since 2004, the selection is exclusively composed of premieres. Several high-profile features are presented at COLCOA for the first time in North America or in the U.S.. COLCOA is also known for presenting successful films a year before their commercial release in the U.S., raising the event’s profile among U.S. distributors who now use the event as a platform to launch and promote their film in Hollywood. 

The COLCOA audience is mainly composed of film industry professionals (74%), including Academy Awards® members: directors, writers, distributors, producers, agents, exhibitors, critics and journalists. COLCOA has developed partnerships with organizations like IFTA, The Cannes Film Market, Film Independent, Women in Film, The American Cinematheque, SAG, and since 2008, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. 

Additionally, COLCOA is more than a film industry event. It has become more and more popular in the Greater Los Angeles community and most of the screenings are booked several weeks before the event. 

In 2008, an educational program was also launched to promote foreign films among young American audiences in association with E.L.M.A (European Languages & Movies in America). Over 12,000 high school students and 95 high schools in Los Angeles County have participated in the program since 2008. In 2010, a master class program was introduced for colleges, film schools and universities. 

More than 100 French writers, directors and producers have presented their film(s) at COLCOA . Among them are Olivier Assayas, Bertrand Blier, Dany Boon, Stéphane Brizé, Laurent Cantet, Alain Corneau, Costa-Gavras, Julie Delpy, Claire Denis, Arnaud Desplechin, Anne Fontaine, Michael Hazanavicius, Mathieu Kassovitz, Philippe Le Guay, Claude Lelouch, Claude Miller, Bertrand Tavernier, Danièle Thompson, and Francis Veber. 

Many celebrities have attended COLCOA , including Rosanna Arquette, Nathalie Baye, Berenice Bejo, Halle Berry, Jaqueline Bisset, George Chakiris, Marion Cotillard, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Alexandre Desplat, Herbie Hancock, Michel Legrand, Helen Mirren, Jeremie Renier, Gena Rowlands, Sharon Stone, Charlize Theron, Lambert Wilson as well as prominent American writers and directors: Wes Craven, Taylor Hackford, John Landis, Michael Mann or Alexander Payne.