This archive report was first published on 30 June 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the postponement of the 25th edition of the City of Lights, City of Angels (COLCOA) film festival in Los Angeles to September 2021.
Organizers cited the 'continuing health situation in the United States, which is different from Europe at the moment' as the reason for the decision, as stated in a press release to AFP on June 30, 2020.
With over 125,000 deaths and 2.5 million cases recorded in the US, and theaters in Los Angeles remaining shuttered, uncertainties remain over how the situation will progress by September.
COLCOA organizers have ruled out a virtual edition of the festival, emphasizing the importance of in-theater screenings for official film premieres in Hollywood.
'Screenings in theaters are fundamentally and symbolically important for all official premieres of a film in Hollywood,' said festival director Francois Truffart. 'This form of public event will remain necessary and popular even after the crisis.'
Previous editions of COLCOA have featured notable films such as Ladj Ly's Oscar-nominated drama 'Les Miserables' and Netflix's 'I Lost My Body,' a French animation about a severed hand that also earned an Oscar nomination.
