AFFF Brings Animated Film to 3,000 LA High School Students

The American French Film Festival marked its 30th anniversary this year by addressing a demographic gap in the American film industry. The organization brought approximately 3,000 Los Angeles high school students to the DGA theater for five screenings of In Waves, an animated feature. The program aims to expose younger audiences to foreign-language cinema before they become accustomed to the limited options available in mainstream U.S. theaters.

The festival has run this educational initiative for two decades. Deputy director Anouchka Van Riel spearheaded the current iteration, which expanded its reach beyond French-language classes to include students in performing arts and other creative disciplines. The goal is to renew the audience base for international films, a sector that has traditionally faced aging demographics and distribution challenges in the United States.

In Waves, directed by Phuong Mai Nguyen, served as the centerpiece for this year’s program. The film, which Netflix acquired at Cannes, is based on a graphic novel by AJ Dungo. It tells the story of a shy teenage boy in Southern California who learns to surf from a girl who later dies of cancer. Netflix is currently positioning the film in the awards race.

The screenings occurred over five days at the DGA theater. Each session accommodated roughly 600 students. The audience included representatives from more than 60 schools, with a deliberate 50/50 split between public and private institutions. Van Riel noted that public school participation often requires teachers to secure grants for bus transportation, highlighting the logistical effort required to bring these groups to the theater.

Van Riel began recruiting schools in May using a database of approximately 300 institutions. She reported that within one week of the first email, around 1,500 seats were reserved. The remaining places were filled over the summer. The festival collaborates with the American Association of Teachers of French to provide educational guides in both French and English. The French-language guide is approximately 100 pages long and covers the film’s themes and cinematic techniques.

Many of the participating students had never attended a film screening followed by a question-and-answer session. Van Riel, a member of the Producers Guild, observed that while industry events are frequent, high school students rarely have access to them unless their parents work in the field. She compared the program to the French tradition of taking middle school students to movies, a practice she noted is less common in Los Angeles.

The festival also addressed the common perception that subtitles act as a barrier for young viewers. Van Riel cited internal surveys indicating that more than 80% of students do not view subtitles as a hindrance. She attributed this shift to the prevalence of streaming platforms and popular subtitled series. She argued that distribution and exposure, rather than language, are the primary obstacles for foreign-language films in the U.S.

The choice of In Waves was driven by the festival’s existing relationship with the film’s producer, Priscilla Bertin. Bertin had previously attended the festival with another project, Wild Diamond, and was in post-production on In Waves at the time. The film’s origin as an American graphic novel discovered by a French producer in a secondhand bookstore provided a compelling narrative for the students.

The atmosphere during the Q&A sessions with producer Priscilla Bertin and screenwriter Fanny Burdino differed from previous years. Students often required a moment of silence before speaking, a reaction Van Riel attributed to the emotional impact of the film. The shared experience of watching and reacting to the story in a dark theater created a sense of community among the attendees.

The program concludes with the expectation that these 3,000 students will form a new core audience for French cinema. The festival plans to maintain its current scale, continuing to balance public and private school participation. The success of the In Waves screenings suggests that the demand for such educational opportunities in Los Angeles remains high.