Festival In Focus: The American French Film Festival Chiefs Talk Comeback Edition & Ambitions To Be “A Gateway To The Oscars Race For French Films”

deadline.com:

The American French Film Festival has long been considered the premiere U.S. event for launching French film and television content to American audiences and while last year’s edition was forced to cancel due to Hollywood’s dual strikes, this year the L.A.-based event is back and gearing up for what it expects to be one of its best editions yet.

The six-day festival, which kicks off its 28th edition on October 29 at the DGA Theater Complex, is bookended by two of the year’s buzziest French titles with Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical-crime film Emilia Pérez set for opening night while Pathé’s French box office hit The Count of Monte Cristo set to close the event on November 3.

Both films, say festival organizers, are reflective of the kinds of projects that TAFFF wants to unveil to Hollywood audiences: Audiard’s Cannes-winning title Emilia Pérez is France’s official submission for the Best International Oscar category this year, while Pathé’s The Count of Monte Cristo was a huge local box office hit in the country, taking $72M in France and becoming the third highest-grossing film of 2024 in the territory. “Foreign films, particularly French films, have a very limited access to the American market,” says François Truffart, TAFFF Executive Producer and Artistic Director. “So, we try to be useful for professionals such as French sales companies as well as American distributors and platforms.”  Emilia Pérez is getting a big awards push in the U.S.

with its distributor Netflix and Monte Cristo is slated for a December 20 domestic release via Samuel Goldwyn but as TAFFF has earned the reputation for being the U.S.