Los Angeles–The Franco-American Cultural Fund (FACF) today announced the program for the 14th Annual City of Lights, City of Angels (COL•COA) film festival that will run April 19-25 in Los Angeles. In addition to 20 shorts, the festival will present 32 feature films including nine U.S. and North American premieres, as well as four International Premieres. COL•COA will open with the North American premiere of Heartbreaker (L’Arnacoeur), an acclaimed romantic comedy starring Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis, directed by Pascal Chaumeil and written by Laurent Zeitoun, Jeremy Doner and Yoann Gromb.
The Concert, a box office comedy hit in France, co-written and directed by Radu Mihaileanu and starring Mélanie Laurent, will have its official U.S. Premiere at COL•COA, in association with The Weinstein Company, who will release the film later this year. Je t’aime…Moi Non Plus, written and directed by Joann Sfar, will be screened at COL•COA Saturday April 24th a day after its North American Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
“We are again honored to be the first to present several new French films in the U.S.,” said François Truffart, Director and Programmer of the COL•COA festival. “Thanks to the continued interest and support of the film industries both in France and the United States, COL•COA has become a unique platform for the promotion of French cinema in the U.S. and around the world.”
The COL•COA competition will close on Sunday April 25th , with the critically acclaimed In The Beginning, an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, co-written and directed by Xavier Giannoli, starring François Cluzet.
Also in competition are the latest films by writer-directors already familiar to COL•COA audiences: Nicolas Boukhrief (Sphinx), Stéphane Brizé (Mademoiselle Chambon), Albert Dupontel (The Villain), Christophe Honoré (Making Plans for Lena), Anne Le Ny (My 
Father’s Guests), Claude Miller (I Am Glad That My Mother is Alive) and Emmanuel Mouret (Please, Please me!).
The program will feature 13 directorial debut films, including the North American premiere of Tête de Turc and Silent Voices, the West Coast premiere of The French Kissers, winner of the César for Best First Film, the International premiere of Immaculate and the U.S. premiere of the acclaimed animation film Round Da Way.
Three documentaries exploring the history of French cinema will premiere at COL•COA this year: Irene a documentary drama written and directed by veteran filmmaker Alain Cavalier; Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno, winner of the 2009 César for Best Documentary, written and co-directed by film collector Serge Bromberg; and Two in the Wave, written by Antoine de Baecque and directed by Emmanuel Laurent.
The COL•COA Classics series will feature the restored film Pierrot Le Fou, screened digitally for the first time outside of France. Actress Anna Karina and Cinémathèque Française director Serge Toubiana will attend and participate in a panel on the French New Wave after the screening. The Classics series will also include two rare screenings: Pauline at the Beach, written and directed by the late Eric Rohmer, and The Little Thief, based on an unfinished François Truffaut script and directed by this year’s Focus on a Filmmaker honoree, veteran writer-director Claude Miller.
The 2010 selection will also feature seven films written or directed by women, including Hidden Diary, co-written and directed by Julie Lopes-Curval, starring Catherine Deneuve, Marina Hands and Marie-Josée Croze, The Hedgehog, written and directed by Mona Achache, based on a novel by Muriel Barbery, and The Father of my Children, written and directed by Mia Hansen- Løve.
Several American distributors will present their films at COL•COA: Flicker Alley (Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno), IFC Films (Making Plans for Lena, The Father of my Children and The Horde), Kino Lorber (Mademoiselle Chambon and Two in the Wave), Neoclassics Films (Farewell) and The Weinstein Company (The Concert).
The festival’s popular “After 10” series will be extended to five screenings this year, including a special horror film series highlighting young French talent specializing in the genre, with the North American debut of High Lane, the International premiere of In Their Sleep, and the North American debut of the highly anticipated zombie film The Horde.
For the third year, the highly successful COL•COA High School screenings will host 2,400 Los Angeles area students in association with ELMA (European Languages and Movies in America), also exclusive sponsor of the new COL•COA master class.
The Happy Hour Talks, the popular panel series introduced in 2007 in association with Variety, will again target interested audience and industry professionals with topics ranging from foreign film distribution to the influence of the French New Wave.
For the first time, the COL•COA audience will be invited to a “Blind Date with a French Film” a surprise and complimentary screening of a North American premiere on Tuesday, April 20th.
The 2010 competition will also include the COL•COA Audience award, the COL•COA Critics award in association with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the COL•COA Short Film award and the COL•COA First Feature award.
City of Lights, City of Angels is funded by the FACF, a unique partnership of the Directors Guild of America the Motion Picture Association France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music and the Writers Guild of America, West with the vital support of L’ARP (France’s Association of Authors, Directors and Producers), the Los Angeles Film and TV Office of the French Embassy, and Unifrance.
COL•COA is sponsored by Air Tahiti Nui, Dailymotion, TV5MONDE (Official Sponsors), Catherine Malandrino, Nouvelle Vague (Premier Sponsors), Airstar, Club Culinaire of French Cuisine, European Languages and Movies in America (ELMA), LA Weekly, Vins de Provence, Sunset Marquis Hotels & Villas, Variety (Major Sponsors), Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, Eclair Group, Ile-de-France Film Commission, indieWIRE, St. Germain, San Joaquin Valley Winegrowers Association, Titra Film Paris, Wild Horse Winery & Vineyards (Platinum Sponsors) and Arthouse Shorts, Cannes Film Market, Hollywood Blonde, JK Wine Company, Lionsgate/StudioCanal, Michaud Vineyard, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Rosenthal Surfrider Wines, Salisbury Vineyards, Saint-Géron, Starros, St. Supéry Vineyards, Valrhona and Volvic (Supporting Sponsors).
All screenings are in French with English subtitles. Tickets are available for advance purchase online at www.colcoa.org and onsite at the Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90046 (cash or checks only). Please visit www.colcoa.org for box office hours. Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $7 tickets for seniors (62+), disabled and members of: American Cinematheque, ASC, ICG, Film Independent, LACMA, SAG and Women in Film, $5 for students and under 21. Tickets are complimentary for DGA and WGAW guild members. The Happy Hour Talks are free on a first come first served basis.
For film and press information, including hi-res photos, log on to www.colcoa.org. For public information, call (310) 289-5346.