JACQUES AUDIARD’S OSCAR BUZZ-WORTHY FILM EMILIA PÉREZ TO OPEN THE 28TH ANNUAL AMERICAN FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL
Sweeping Cinematic Tour-de-Force The Count Of Monte Cristo to Screen Closing Night of the Festival
The American French Film Festival (TAFFF) will bookend it’s 28th annual edition with two of France’s most-talked-about films this awards season: Emilia Pérez, the Opening Night film, and The Count of Monte Cristo, which will wrap up the six-day event that runs October 29 to November 3 at the Director’s Guild of America Theatre Complex. The announcement was made today by The Franco-American Cultural Fund (FACF), the originator of The American French Film Festival.
Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, a genre defying musical drama about love and redemption, will be celebrated at The American French Film Festival with a gala, red-carpet Opening Night screening on October 29, presented in association with Netflix. Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, the film was the toast of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, earning the four actresses - Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz - a collective “Best Actress” award. The film will be rerun on October 30 at the Festival.
The period drama The Count of Monte Cristo, France’s most-expensive film of 2024, will be the Closing Night film, November 3. Written and directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, the film had its world premiere as part of the Official Selection of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Both films will compete for the 2024 TAFFF Awards, which will be awarded during a ceremony held in Paris on November 8.
“We are beyond excited to have Emilia Pérez as our curtain-raiser and The Count of Monte Cristo wrap up the Festival this year - two films that feature music in spectacular ways,” said Cécile Rap-Veber, President of The Franco-American Cultural Fund and CEO of SACEM. “The American French Film Festival has become the place to shine for French films and series at the beginning of Awards season in Los Angeles. There is so much excitement and awards chatter around these two films. We are thrilled to have this mutual support between us and distributors Netflix and Samuel Goldwyn Films, as well as the filmmakers, stars, writers, and composers to celebrate with all of them the cooperation between the American and French film communities and to bring the very best of French filmmaking to Hollywood.”
Emilia Pérez is an odyssey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self. The result is as rapturous as it is breathtaking and a testament to Jacques Audiard’s fearless filmmaking in the face of the most-daring of artistic risks. The film features 16 original songs and its affecting score composed by acclaimed musical duo Camille and Clément Ducol.
Emilia Pérez is produced by Why Not Productions, Page 114, Saint Laurent Productions, France 2 Cinema, and Pathé Films. The film is distributed in the United States by Netflix. It will premiere in select theaters in the US on November 1 and on Netflix in the US, Canada and the UK on November 13.
For The Count of Monte Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) directors Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, the dynamic screenwriting duo behind last year's Three Musketeers blockbuster, now take on Alexandre Dumas's swashbuckling 19th century epic of lost love and single-minded vengeance and bring it to the big screen with a stellar ensemble cast and lavish production values. The tale begins with a heroic young first mate Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney), freshly promoted to ship's captain and finally in a position to marry his secret love. However, on the very morning of their wedding day, Edmond is wrongfully arrested for a crime he knows nothing of — a plot hatched by three of the most ruthless of rivals— and shipped off to the formidable Château d'If prison off the coast of Marseille. But the story certainly doesn't end there, as filmmakers and author alike delve into an intimate examination of the nature of revenge, justice, mercy, and forgiveness. The moving story is accompanied by an all-encompassing original score from composer Jérôme Rebotier.
The Count of Monte Cristo is produced by Chapter 2, Pathé Films, Fargo Films, Logical Content Venture, Umedia, and M6. The Count of Monte Cristo is distributed in the US by Samuel Goldwyn Films and will have a US theatrical release in Q4 2024.
The festival will release the series and documentary selections after September 15. The full line up including all Feature films will be announced on October 2.
