Stephanie RONNET

City of Lights, City of Angels (COL•COA) was created in 1996 by The Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaborative effort 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). COL•COA is also supported by l’Association des Auteurs-Realisateurs-Producteurs (ARP), the Film and TV Office of the French Embassy in Los Angeles and UNIFRANCE. Each year, COL•COA is committed to promoting new French films in Hollywood and to showcasing the vitality and the diversity of French cinema: comedies and dramas, box office hits in France and novelties, first features and films from confirmed writer-directors, art house movies as well as mainstream films. In 13 years, 174 new feature films and 120 new shorts have been selected. COL•COA has constantly developed to become a showcase of at least 50 films, with a capacity of 15,000 in 2009 and an occupancy rate of 91.3%. Its exclusive program has made of COL•COA an anticipated date in the industry calendar. It is now one of the biggest events in Hollywood exclusively dedicated to foreign cinema and one of the largest French film events in the world. Scheduled a few weeks after the Academy Awards® and less than three weeks before the Cannes Film Festival, COL•COA has become a prestigious event in Los Angeles.