The 13th Annual City of Lights, City of Angels (COL-COA) Film Festival swung into motion with its opening night gala on Monday, April 20, 2009. Once again the DGA's Los Angeles headquarters served as the central location for this annual celebration of French films.
This year's COL-COA presented 50 films, including 30 features, 20 shorts, and several world and international premieres. The festival also honored director Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing) in its Focus on a Filmmaker event, which presented a screening of his first feature The Sleeping Car Murders and the premiere of his latest film Eden Is West. Costa-Gavras is also the Honorary President of the Franco-American Cultural Fund (FACF).
COL-COA is the flagship program of the FACF - a unique collaborative effort of the DGA, the Motion Picture Association, Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique (SACEM), and the Writers Guild of America, west.