photos by Valerie Macon/APF
From April 24-May 2, COLCOA (formerly City of Lights • City of Angels), the annual celebration of French films returned to Los Angeles. The festivities kicked off on April 24 with an opening night gala at DGA headquarters in Los Angeles. The nine-day festival featured 75 films competing for the 2017 COLCOA Awards; as well as North American, International and World Premieres; panel discussions and an educational program that presented screenings to hundreds of students from local high schools. All screenings were free to DGA members.
During the opening night gala, DGA Board members mingled with other VIPs at a gala reception, highlighted by a screening of Director Claude Lelouch’s new feature, Everyone’s Life (Chacun sa vie).
Other highlights from this year’s festivities included the return of the popular one hour panel discussion series Happy Hour Talks, one of which was the Focus on a Filmmaker salute to Director Stéphane Brizé (Mademoiselle Chambon) with screenings of his film Not Here to be Loved and the premiere of his latest feature A Woman’s Life; and the COLCOA Educational Program that presented screenings to hundreds of students from local high schools.
Other special events included Q&As with French Filmmakers such as Director Nicolas Boukhrief discussing his film The Confession in a Q&A moderated by DGA Director-member Jeremy Kagan and Director Dany Boon discussing his film R.A.I.D. Special Unit in a Q&A with DGA Director-member Jerry Zucker. The third day of the festival also featured a special tribute to the late DGA-Award winning Director Jonathan Demme from several of his French counterparts.
About the Festival
COLCOA is presented by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a partnership of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM), and the Writers Guild of America, West, and is produced in association with France’s Writers, Directors and Producers Association (L’ARP), the CNC, the Los Angeles Film and TV Office of the French Embassy, and Unifrance. The DGA has supported the festival since its founding in 1996.
