LOS ANGELES –The Franco-American Cultural Fund (FACF) today announced the program for the 15th Annual City of Lights, City of Angels (COL•COA) film festival that will run April 11-18 in Los Angeles. In addition to 26 shorts, the festival will present 34 features, including two World Premieres, eight International and North American Premieres and four U.S. Premieres. “The relationship between COL•COA and our audiences has evolved into a genuine love story over the last 15 years,” stated François Truffart, Director and Programmer. “We are thrilled that for this 15th anniversary year, we will bring an equally exclusive and high profile line up, keeping the passion for French cinema alive for both our loyal and new attendees.”
COL•COA will open with Service Entrance (“Les Femmes du 6ème étage”), a romantic comedy directed by Philippe Le Guay, co-written by Le Guay and Jérôme Tonnerre, starring Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Kiberlain, with a supporting role by Carmen Maura. Presented at the 2011 Berlinale and recently released in France, Service Entrance is already a critical and commercial success. The film will be released in the U.S. by Strand Releasing later this year. The COL•COA competition will close on Sunday April 17th with the North American Premiere of the new box office hit written and directed by Dany Boon, Nothing to Declare. Low Cost, a highly anticipated comedy written and directed by Maurice Barthélémy, and Monsieur Papa, a family film starring Kad Merad and Michèle Laroque, will have their World Premieres at COL•COA.
Several high profile titles will be introduced in the U.S. at COL•COA. Among them are My Piece of the Pie (International Premiere), written and directed by Cédric Klapisch, Little White Lies 
(U.S. Premiere), written and directed by Guillaume Canet, as well as the North American Premieres of Beautiful Lies, directed by Pierre Salvadori, co-written by Salvadori and Benoît Graffin, A View of Love, directed by Nicole Garcia, co-written by Garcia and Jacques Fieschi, and the new Catherine Deneuve-starrer, His Mother’s Eyes, directed by Thierry Klifa, co-written by Klifa and Christopher Thompson.
The program will feature six directorial debut films, including the North American Premiere of Jo’s Boy, written and directed by Phillippe Guillard and the North American Premiere of Angèle & Tony, written and directed by Alix Delaporte, which won the MPA’s Michel d’Ornano Prize at the 2010 Deauville Film Festival. Several American distributors will present their films at COL•COA: The Cohen Media Group – My Afternoons with Margueritte; Music Box Films – The Names of Love; Olive Films – Mammuth and Strand Releasing – Service Entrance and The Sleeping Beauty. Five popular series will return in 2011. COL•COA.doc will introduce From One Film to Another, written and directed by Claude Lelouch, while After 10 will highlight Our Day Will Come, directed by Romain Gavras, co-written by Gavras and Karim Boukercha. COL•COA Classics will feature the restored The 317th Platoon with octogenarian writer-director Pierre Schoendoerffer in person, as well as a Tribute to Claude Chabrol with a film chosen by Martin Scorsese. The Film Noir series will include the International Premiere of The Night Clerk, directed by Raphaël Jacoulot, co-written by Jacoulot and Lise Macheboeuf. The Focus on a Filmmaker, honoring writer-director Bertrand Blier, will take its usual place on Thursday April 14th and will include his latest film, The Clink of Ice. A second master class will be added to the COL•COA educational program in association with ELMA (European Languages and Movies in America). The program will host close to 3,500 students from over 70 high schools, colleges and universities in California. For the first time, COL•COA will also present a program of shorts from students of La Fémis in Paris.
To celebrate the announcement and recipients of the 2011 COL•COA Awards, two of the winning films will be re-screened for free on Monday, April 18th at 7:30 p.m. 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.com, TV5MONDE (Official Sponsors), Airstar, La Boîte (Premier Sponsors), Château Brane-Cantenac, Club Culinaire of Southern California, ELMA, GAYOT.com, LA Weekly, Sunset Marquis, Variety (Major Sponsors), Beaver Creak Vineyards, Boiron USA, Cinando, Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, Éclair Group, Ile de France Film Commission, indieWIRE, Laemmle Theaters, Marché du Film, Mubi, TITRA TVS (Platinum Sponsors) and Hollywood Blonde, Lionsgate/StudioCanal, Les Macarons Duverger,
Peets Coffee & Tea, Rosenthal The Malibu Estate, ROXO Port Cellars, Salisbury Vineyards, Saint-Géron, St. Germain, 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.