Festivals - Colcoa 2019 : the complete line-up

By Mulder, Los Angeles, Residence de France, 27 august 2019

The Franco-American Cultural Fund, a partnership of DGA, MPA, SACEM and WGA West, announced today the program for the 23rd Colcoa French film festival that includes World, International, North American, U.S. and Los Angeles premieres. The festival runs September 23-28 at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, as part of Awards Season in Hollywood. The festival will open with the U.S. premiere of Ladj Ly’s Les Miserables on Monday, September 23. Colcoa is delighted to be the inaugural festival event at the newly renovated DGA, as it has been Colcoa’s home for 23 years. This year’s new dates for the festival offer us a unique platform to promote French Films and series in Hollywood at the beginning of Awards Season. Colcoa is considered the largest festival dedicated to French films and series worldwide. Additional programming will be announced shortly.
"This high-profile program includes several films from Cannes and Venice programmed for the first time in the U.S., as well as films presented before their release in France,” stated François Truffart, Colcoa Executive Producer and Artistic Director. “It shows the faithfulness of distributors, producers and sponsors, who strongly believe that Colcoa has become an established event in Hollywood.”

Over 25 films will premiere and compete for the Colcoa Cinema Awards, beginning on Opening Night (Monday, September 23) with Amazon Studios’ Les Miserables, which won the Jury Prize at the last Cannes Film Festival and the 2019 D’Ornano-Valenti Prize. Victor Hugo’s magnum opus is both lionized and shaken up in Ladj Ly’s sprawling fresco of his native Montfermeil - a collection of housing projects crawling with sleazy cops, small-time hoods, the Muslim Brotherhood, and a ragtag group of kids left to fend for themselves... all jockeying for turf and struggling to forestall the inevitable. Majestic, stirring, gripping and compassionate, with a musical score that is, at once, moving and thrilling, the film follows an upright cop on his first day on the job, as he learns the ropes and struggles to hold onto his principles. It opens with a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise and a joyous eruption of fraternité and concludes with a resounding eleventh-hour alarm and powerful plea to diffuse the tinderbox and somehow resolve all this anger and violence.

The festival showcases both established and exciting new directors. Veteran filmmakers include Academy Award® winner writer/director Costa Gavras’ political thriller, Adults in the room (North American Premiere); w/d Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne’s drama Young Ahmed (North American Premiere); w/d Cédric Klapisch’s new pursuit of love, Someone, Somewhere (North American Premiere); w/d Cédric Kahn’s dysfunctional family portrait, Happy Birthday (North American Premiere), starring Catherine Deneuve; and w/d Nicolas Boukhrief’s thriller based on Pierre Lemaitre’s novel, Three days and a life (International Premiere).

Newcomers include w/d Antoine Raimbault’s courtroom drama, Conviction (Los Angeles Premiere) and w/d Mikhaël Hers post-traumatic stress disorder drama, Amanada (Los Angeles Premiere), as well as several films written and directed by women including Andréa Bescond’s autobiographical feature (made with w/d Eric Métayer) about her sexual abuse as a child, Little Tickles (Los Angeles Premiere); w/d Mounia Meddour’s Algerian civil war drama, Papicha (North American Premiere and Algeria’s official entry for the Oscars); w/d Claire Burger’s family drama, Real love (Los Angeles Premiere), director Fabienne Godet’s powerful drama about recovery, Our wonderful lives (U.S. Premiere); w/d Marie-Sophie Chambon’s debut feature film on how it feels to be an outsider, Stars by the pound (North American Premiere); and w/d Sarah Suco’s autobiographical film, The Dazzled (International Premiere).

In addition to Amazon Studios’ Les miserables, Colcoa is working with several U.S. distributors to present films in Hollywood before their U.S. release including Netflix’s anticipated animated film, I lost my body, by w/d Jérémy Clapin (presented in association with Animation is Film); Strand Releasing’s On a magical night (North American Premiere) by w/d Christophe Honoré; Roadside Attraction’s Cyrano, my love (U.S. Premiere), a comedy by w/d Alexis Michalik, based on his hit play, Distrib Films US’s adoption drama In Sahe Hands (Los Angeles Premiere) by w/d Jeanne Herry; and Kino Lorber’s The trouble with you (Los Angeles Premiere), the new comedy by w/d Pierre Salvadori.

In addition to I lost my body and five animation shorts, the festival will offer the audience an opportunity to experience the new technology in the DGA’s renovated theater with the Los Angeles Premiere of w/d Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo’s animated 3D delight Minuscule : mandibles from far away.

The Colcoa Classics will include an homage to late writer/director Agnès Varda and French composer Michel Legrand with a special presentation of the1962 breakout film, Cleo from 5 to 7 (in association with Rialto Pictures); w/d Jean Renoir’s 1932 digitally-restored drama, Toni (International Premiere), about a real life love triangle that went awry; as well as w/d Jacques Becker’s 1954 digitally-restored mobster film, Touchez pas au Grisbi (Los Angeles Premiere). Toni and Touchez pas au Grisbi are presented in association with Janus Films.
The popular COLCOA High School screening program will run for five days during the festival with the Los Angeles Premiere of the musical coming-of-age tale In You Hands w/d by Ludovic Bernard. More than 3,000 Southern California students and teachers are expected to attend free screenings and conversations, as well as participate in a student film critic contest. This program, celebrating its 12th year, is produced in partnership withELMA (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.

Other exciting programs offered throughout the festival include: After 10 series (September 24 - 28); COLCOA Classics (September 24-27), COLCOA Documentaries (September 24-28); World Cinema Produced by France, French NeWave 2.0, exploring a new generation of filmmakers, and the Happy Hour Talks, a series of panels presented in association with Variety (September 24-28) that are free to the general public.

The complete recipient list of the 2019 Awards for the three competitions (Cinema, Television, and Shorts) will be announced on Sunday, September 29 by the Franco-American Cultural Fund. For the twelfth year, LAFCA will partner with Colcoa Cinema for the Critics’ Awards. For the third year, a student jury made of high school and college students, will vote for the Colcoa American Students’s award. The Colcoa Awards are presented in association with KPCC-89.3, TITRAFILM, TV5 Monde USA, and AIR TAHITI NUI.

Colcoa French Film Festival is presented by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaboration between 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 France’s Society of Authors, Directors and Producers (L’ARP) the Film and TV Office of the French Embassy in Los Angeles, TV France International, and Unifrance.

More photos are available in our Flickr page

Photos and video : Gaelle Gillis

Edited by Gaelle Gillis

For additional information visit: www.colcoa.org

(Source : press release)