It’s a tall order to sustain an L.A.-based film festival that focuses solely on French-language content, but The American French Film Festival has risen to the challenge for nearly three decades. The six-day event, which kicks off its 29th edition today with Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life starring Jodie Foster, has made a concerted effort in recent years to position itself as both a key platform for launching French-language Oscar contenders while also remaining a prime destination for U.S. and international industry execs to come together to watch French films and series.
“It’s kind of a miracle that we’ve maintained a position in the market,” admits TAFFF Deputy Director Anouchka van Riel. “All foreign films in the U.S. are a niche market, especially when you think of theatrical numbers. I believe foreign films account for less than 2% of the box office in the U.S. So, our challenge every year is to put together a meaningful event that resonates on a global stage.”
Both Van Riel and TAFFF Executive Producer and Artistic Director François Truffart admit that last year was a pivotal edition for the long-running festival, in part due to its buzzy Oscar-winning opening night film Emilia Pérez from auteur French director Jacques Audiard but also due to the fact that a raft of companies such as Netflix, Sony Pictures Classics, Apple TV+ and HBO Max “decided to come in a very important way.”
“We started discussions very early with these companies and they were all excited to have their films in our lineup and to show their films as an official premiere in L.A. after what they had done with key festivals like Cannes, Toronto or Venice,” recalls Truffart.
He continues: “We had amazing programs, and we were able to show many of these films before their release on various platforms. This is definitely a new area for us, which is great, because this is definitely one of our goals as a festival. We really are a platform for the awards now.”
Van Riel agrees and notes that last year was “phenomenal” due to “some seeds we have been planting along the way” and counts the festival’s “steady backers” as the “unsung heroes” of the event.
The American French Film Festival (formerly known as COLCOA) was created in 1997 and is produced by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a collaboration between the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA). It is also supported by Unifrance, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and France’s Society of Authors, Directors and Producers (L’ARP).
TAFFF’s Artistic Director François Truffart
Building on success
This year, TAFFF is doubling down on the success from last year’s event and preparing for what it believes will be its biggest edition yet. The festival kicks off today with Zlotowski’s A Private Life, which sees Foster star as a psychiatrist who mounts a private investigation into the suspicious death of one of her patients. The film, in which Foster speaks entirely in French, also stars Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira and Vincent Lacoste. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the title in the U.S. and Foster is set to be given a lifetime achievement award at TAFFF this year.
Likewise, Richard Linklater’s French-debut Nouvelle Vague, which premiered in Cannes earlier this year, will also be a centerpiece at the festival: Linklater is set to be honored with a Franco-American Cultural Fund Award and the Netflix film will also be the subject of the festival’s pivotal educational program, which provides 3,000 high school students with the opportunity to attend a screening and discussion with filmmakers.
“It’s not an easy one but for us it was a no-brainer,” says Van Riel of selecting this film for the students. “The Nouvelle Vague were the TikTokers of the 1960s, right? They just took a camera and went filming. It’s very empowering for kids to make art and not to mention, it’s just a beautiful film.”
Additional highlights from the 70 films and television series selected for this year’s lineup include French Oscar entry It Was Just An Accident from Iranian helmer Jafar Panahi and Oliver Laxe’s Spanish Oscar entry Sirât, which is a co-production with France. Yann Gozlan’s psychological thriller Guru, which stars Pierre Niney as a charismatic and manipulative self-help guru, will close the festival this year.
A variety of films that have already featured on the festival circuit in the last few months include Claire Denis’ The Fence, François Ozon’s The Stranger, Sylvain Chomet’s A Magnificent Life, Valérie Donzelli’s At Work, Laurent Cantet’s posthumous work Enzo, directed by his longtime friend Robin Campillo, Cédric Jimenez’s sci-fi action film Dog 51 and Martin Bourboulon’s 13 Days, 13 Nights.
This year, TAFFF is also adding new sidebars including the New Wave Spotlight, which will showcase first and second films, as well as the New Horizons sidebar for films by both emerging and established directors with a unique cinematic vision.
Some films selected for the New Wave Spotlight this year include Martin Jouvat’s Baise-en-ville, Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender, Lisa Akoka and Romane Gueret’s Summer Beats, Joséphine Japy’s The Wonderers and Aurélien Peyre’s Hearts on Fire.
New Horizons selections this year include Sirât, Anton Balekdjian, Léo Couture and Mattéo Eustachon’s Drifting Laurent, Léonor Seraille’s Ari, Louise Hérmon’s The Girl in the Snow and Quentin Dupieux’s The Piano Accident.
The festival has long been programming television series for its lineup, and this year will see 10 new drama series screen at the event, including Jessica Palud’s action-adventure series The Seduction, political thriller The Deal, directed by Jean-Stéphane Bron, and Cédric Anger’s thriller The Hunt for Gaumont and Apple TV+.
TAFFF will also screen six documentaries this year including Guillaume Ribot’s All I Had Was Nothingness, which goes behind the scenes of the making of Claude Lanzmann’s major work Shoah, and Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, created from video-calls between the French Iranian director and Fatima Hassouna, a 24-year-old aspiring photojournalist living in Gaza.
TAFFF Deputy Director Anouchka van Riel
“Our festival is very much a mirror of the zeitgeist and what is happening now,” says Van Riel, adding that while U.S. producers are now looking further afield for funding opportunities, French filmmakers and producers still look to the U.S. for inspiration in techniques.
“France, of course, has a subsidized model, but often looks to the U.S. for inspiration in techniques whether it be scriptwriting or filmmaking,” she says. “This festival is at the crux of all of this right now and there is a tremendous amount of momentum for this festival now. We see it with the crossover and centerpiece films. The fact that we can have these movies and create lots of conversations during the event is incredible.”
To support that, TAFFF this year is organizing workshops with industry professionals and French filmmaking talent. Sean Baker and Jason Reitman are set to participate in a DGA workshop about the importance of theatrical releases while Stranger Things writer Paul Dichter will participate in a WGA panel on screenwriting.
The festival will also continue with its competition and awards ceremony, something that Truffart says is very important for French delegates. Its TAFFF Awards will be completed with audience votes in all categories, and this year’s winners are set to be announced on November 4 before recipients are awarded in person at a special ceremony in Paris on November 12.
“It’s very important for French people to know that Hollywood is not interested in only one kind of film or production,” says Truffart. “It’s very eclectic and this is the reason why our selection is very eclectic. We want to reflect that there is not only one audience for foreign films in the U.S. We have several kinds of audiences, and we want to show the diversity of French production across everything we do.”
The American French Film Festival runs from October 28 to November 3 at the DGA Theater Complex.
