Hollywood postpones French film festival to 2021

Hollywood's French film festival will not take place in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said Tuesday, as cases continue to surge in the US.

COLCOA, which features premieres and glitzy galas for Gallic cinema in Los Angeles, is scheduled to next take place in September 2021 - a 25th anniversary edition. The decision was taken due to "the continuing health situation in the United States, which is different from Europe at the moment," COLCOA said in a statement to AFP.

COVID-19 is still rampaging across the US, which has recorded more than 125,000 deaths and 2.5 million cases, and theaters in Los Angeles remain shuttered.

Uncertainties remain over how the situation, including travel restrictions, will progress by September - when 2020's COLCOA was due to take place - the statement added.

Organizers said they had ruled out the idea of holding a "virtual" edition of the festival.

Screenings in theaters are "fundamentally and symbolically important for all official premieres of a film in Hollywood," said festival director Francois Truffart, adding that "this form of public event will remain necessary and popular even after the crisis."

The COLCOA - which stands for "City of Lights, City of Angels" - held in 2019 opened with Ladj Ly's gritty Oscar-nominated drama Les Miserables.

It also featured Netflix's I Lost My Body, a French animation about a severed hand which also earned an Oscar nomination.