THE world’s largest festival of French films hits Hollywood this month embracing the #MeToo moment with a line-up dedicated to the country’s best female filmmaking talent.

The 22nd Colcoa — originally styled “City of Lights, City of Angels” — is offering a record 86 films, television shows, digital series and virtual reality experiences, many never seen before in the United States, as well as a handful of international and U.S. premieres.

It is the first edition of the annual event since the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse scandal that sparked the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns, and the program reflects the push to celebrate the work of women.

“Through its different competitions, we are proud to dedicate this year’s programming of Colcoa to women, both in their role in the making of the films and series, and their central roles in the majority of the stories selected this year,” said executive producer Francois Truffart.

Colcoa boasts some 75 entrants for a slew of honors, including the audience award, best documentary, best TV movie, critics award and critics special prize.

These include Oscar-nominated Xavier Legrand’s feature debut “Custody,” a social realist thriller about a violent abuser who forces his way back into his ex’s life that won best director and debut at the Venice film festival.

“The Party Is Over,” another feature directorial debut, this time from Marie Garel-Weiss, is about two women who bond as they battle drug addiction, becoming inseparable.

More than half of the selection of short films are by women, while panels will address the role of women in the French film industry and first films directed by women.

Over at the festival’s virtual reality corner, an experience called Uturn examines the gender gap from both sides with interwoven stories that allow the viewer to embody either a female or male character.

The experience was created by Nathalie Mathe, a NASA scientist-turned-film-maker and VR specialist whose credits include “Persepolis,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Skyfall,” “Captain Phillips” and “Fast and Furious 6.” “For 50 years women have been told how they should adapt and learn to survive in order to succeed in male-dominated industries like tech and media,” she said in a statement about the project.

The festival opens April 23 with the North American premiere of writer-director Eric Barbier’s “Promise At Dawn,” a celebration of motherhood starring Pierre Niney and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

It closes a week later with the North American premiere of Cedric Kahn’s study of a religious sanctuary for recovering addicts, “The Prayer,” which won newcomer Anthony Bajon best actor at Berlin’s film festival.

Colcoa’s growing repertoire of movies and burgeoning popularity — about 25,000 people now attend each year — have seen it become the world’s largest festival dedicated to French film, according to its organizers.

(SD-Agencies)