‘Colors Of Time,’ ‘Love Me Tender’, ‘Nouvelle Vague’ & ‘The Girl In The Snow’ Among Winners At The American French Film Festival

EXCLUSIVE: Cédric Klapisch’s Colors of Time, Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender, Louise Hémon’s feature debut The Girl in the Snow and Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague were some of the film winners at the 29th American French Film Festival in L.A. this year. 

The six-day festival, which wrapped on November 3 at the DGA Theater Complex, has awarded Colors of Time with its prestigious Audience Award. The film, which premiered in Cannes earlier this year, tells the story of four cousins who inherit an old house in rural Normandy and retrace the steps of their ancestors in 19th century Paris. 

The festival’s Critics’ Award went to Love Me Tender, which sees Vicky Krieps play a lawyer who fights her ex-husband for custody of their son after starting a new relationship. Nouvelle Vague, Linkletter’s love letter to the French New Wave and Godard, picked up the American Students’ Award while Hémon’s directorial feature debut The Girl in the Snow, an 1899-set story that follows a young woman’s arrival in a snowy hamlet on the edge of the Alps, picked up the festival’s First Feature Award. 

For television, the festival’s Audience Series Award went to The Deal, a six-part political drama about a Swiss diplomat in 2015 Geneva mediating U.S.-Iran nuclear talks while dealing with an endangered Iranian engineer. Its Jury Series Award went to Canal+ series The Sentinels, a WWI-set show that follows French Private Gabriel who is presumed dead but then selected for a top-secret program, which involves him taking a serum that makes him stronger and faster. 

TAFFF’s TV Movie Award went to drama Blessed Be Sixtine, which sees its main character, Sixtine, marry a violent Catholic fundamentalist. When he dies, she flees her in-laws and attempts to rebuild her life. 

TAFFF’s Short Film Award was given to Hugo Becker’s The Lifeline while the Documentary Award went to Linda Bendali’s Drugged and Abused: No More Shame, which focuses on the shocking rape trial of Gisèle Pelicot. 

TAFFF Awards will take place in person at a special ceremony in Paris on November 12. The festival’s Artistic Director François Truffart says it’s important for the intimate event to take place in the French capital so that all talent can be present. “Some of our French delegates need to leave before or just after closing night so it’s best to have the awards presented in Paris,” he said. “It’s also great to have part of the French-American event take place in France with all the people associated with the winners.” 

Truffart added that distributors use the award to promote their films and series in the U.S. 

“For films already acquired, it’s an additional accolade they can use for promotion,” he said. “But for those still seeking distribution, it is a tremendous selling point. For example, last year, The Marching Band won the Audience Award, which helped the film gain distribution. With The Count of Monte Cristo, which won the Students’ Award last year, its distributor Samuel Goldwyn used it to help gain recognition from younger audiences.” 

TAFFF started its awards in 2006 with the Audience Award and the festival has been steadily growing them year-on-year since then. “The significance of the awards is that they reflect the choice of the audience and jury and the preferences from an American audience for French cinema and series,” said Truffart. “It’s very useful information for the French film and TV industries.”

The American French Film Festival 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).

The 29th edition of TAFFF ran from October 28 to November 3 in L.A.