After completing a Master’s degree in Politics in Paris,
François Truffart was Cultural Attaché in charge of cinema promotion at the French Embassy in Hungary, Japan and the United States (Los Angeles) successively, from 1991 to 2001. In 2002, he was Director of the Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival and then represented Le Marché du Film of the Cannes Film Festival in the US. He has been in charge of programming for
COL•COA since 2004 before being assigned as Director and Programmer in 2007. He is a consultant for film finance and acquisitions for the Japanese market, through his LA-based company Sorry Angels, Inc.
Bijan Tehrani: Please tell us about the 2009 Colcoa. What should we expect? Are there any new changes for this year?
Francois Tuffart: It could be a paradox, but this year Colcoa is the biggest in terms of the number of films; there will be fifty films, thirty features and twenty shorts. It is also certainly the biggest in terms of the number of films having their international and world premieres. We are very happy with that, and that we continue to build up the festival in spite of the economic recession. We are expecting more people, more capacity for people, and we have several sponsors this year. I would say we are lucky regarding the situation currently.
BT: We are always looking for the future generations of film fans who are interested in international cinema, and especially French cinema. And the high school program that you offer is really great in that regard.
FT: Right. The High School is a program that we created last year in association with
ELMA. It is a program that we have developed as we are expecting more than 2000 students this year, compared to 1000 last year. This year we also have fourty American High
Schools involved. The idea was to entertain the audience and show them that they can have fun watching a foreign language film. We show a film every morning for four days for 2200 High School students.
BT: Who are the guests that are confirmed to be present at the festival this year?
FT: We have many filmmakers. We will have Zabou Breitman, who will be showing his film “
Someone I Loved”. We will also have the actress and director Josiane Balasko, who will be showing her new film “
The French Gigolo”. We will also be showing the world premier of “
So Close”, by the talented directors Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, who both won the audience awards two years ago. We will also have Costa-Gravas on Thursday, which is a special day with him. We have a one hour discussion with him, as well as his film “
Eden is West”. Also, we have a lot of producers coming this year. We have an amazing world premier on Saturday, which is called “Queen to Play” with Kevin Kline. We are also very to happy to have the director of the popular film “
The First Day of the Rest of Your Life”, Remi Bezancon. “
Secret of State”, an amazing film, will be shown on Tuesday, and Phillippe Haim, the director, will be here.
BT: Sounds amazing. How can the audience get tickets to the festival?
FT: Tickets are available on
www.colcoa.org. All the screenings are at the Directors Guild of America on Sunset, and tickets can be bought there as well. You can buy tickets everyday during the festival, and we have tickets available on the same day.
