LOS ANGELES, CA – The Franco-American Cultural Fund, a partnership of the DGA, MPA, WGAW and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM), announced today that The Attack, directed by Ziad Doueiri and written by Ziad Doueiri and Joelle Touma (based on Yasmina Khadra’s book L’Attentat), walked away with three honors, including the COL*COA Audience Award. The Critics Special Prize also went to the film as well as the new Coming Soon Award, a prize given in association with KPCC 89.3, to a film presented with an attached U.S. distributor. The Attack was presented at COLCOA as part of the series World Cinema produced by France. The film will be released in France on May 29, followed by its U.S. release on June 21 by The Cohen Media Group.
A Few Hours of Spring was awarded the LAFCA Critics Award by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association jury at the 17th annual City of Lights, City of Angels French film festival. The film was co-written by Stéphane Brizé and Florence Vignon, and directed by Stéphane Brizé.
The Audience Special Prize went to Haute Cuisine, co-written by Etienne Comar and Christian Vincent, who directed the film, and the First Feature Award to Populaire, a romantic comedy written by Régis Roinsard, Daniel Presley, and Romain Compingt, and directed by Régis Roinsard. The Weinstein Company will release both films in the U.S., respectively on August 16 and on May 17.
Special Mentions were given by the Audience to What’s in a Name, a comedy co-written and co-directed by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, soon to be released in the U.S. by Under The Milky Way, and by Critics to In the House, written and directed by François Ozon.
The COLCOA Documentary Prize went to Becoming Traviata, written and directed by Philippe Béziat. Distrib Films will release the film in the U.S.
“The 17th edition of this much-loved annual event presented us with a diverse selection of offerings that included highly anticipated works from veteran filmmakers and remarkable features by relative newcomers,” said Lael Loewenstein of KPCC’s Film Week, the critics’ jury president. “We were unanimous in our acclaim for the top film, Stephane Brizé’s A Few Hours of Spring. We hope this recognition will help it find the wider audience it so richly deserves.”
The Lizards, written and directed by Vincent Mariette,won the Jury Short Film Award. Jury Special Prize went to two films: Just Before Losing Everything, written and directed by Xavier Legrand with My Sweetheart, written and directed by Daniel Metge, and Kiki of Montparnasse, from writer/directorAmélie Harraultreceiving Jury Special Mention.
Two films share the 2013 Audience Choice Short Film Award: A La Francaise, written and directed by Morrigane Boyer, Julien Hazebroucq, Ren-Hsien Hsu, Emmanuelle Leleu and William Lorton, and City of Light, written and directed by Pascal Tessaud.
The weeklong festival set an attendance record of 19,000 at the Directors Guild of America, site of the festivities. Thirty-one features and documentaries and 19 shorts competed for the 2013 COL*COA Awards.
COL*COA is sponsored by Air Tahiti Nui, Dailymotion.com, TV5MONDE (Official Sponsors); Airstar, La Boîte, Los Angeles Times, KPCC 89.3 (Premier Sponsors); Club Culinaire of Southern California, ELMA, Gayot.com, Indiewire, LA Weekly, Sunset Marquis, Variety (Major Sponsors); Champagne de L’Argentaine, Cinando, Esprit de Champagne, HammerSky, Ile de France Film Commission, Laemmle Theatres, Les Macarons Duverger, Marché du Film, St-Germain, TITRA TVS, Under The Milky Way (Platinum Sponsors); and, Alliance Française de Los Angeles, Clautiere Vineyard, Hollywood Blonde, Rosenthal The Malibu Estate, ROXO Port Cellars, Valrhona (Supporting Sponsors).