Netflix's animated drama "In Waves" will open the 30th anniversary edition of the American French Film Festival (TAFFF) on Nov. 3, with the festival running through Nov. 8 at the DGA complex in West Hollywood. The opening night screening is presented in association with Netflix.

"In Waves," directed by French-Vietnamese filmmaker Phuong Mai Nguyen, premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where it became the first animated feature to open Critics' Week. The film adapts AJ Dungo's graphic novel, a love story between a shy teenage boy and the girl who teaches him to surf and to live, before she dies of cancer. The English-language voice cast includes Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu.

The film's path to Los Angeles spans an ocean. Cécile Rap-Veber, president of the Franco-American Cultural Fund — the organization behind TAFFF — and CEO of SACEM, described the project's trajectory in a statement.

"AJ Dungo, a Californian surfer and self-taught artist, spent years drawing his own graphic novel as a way of processing the loss of his girlfriend. That intimate, autobiographical work found its second life across the Atlantic, where French-Vietnamese director Phuong Mai Nguyen and Silex Films optioned it, assembled a French production and spent years translating Dungo's linework into a fully animated feature," Rap-Veber said. "Netflix has now brought the finished film back to American audiences as the U.S. distributor, closing a circle that began on a California beach and passed through French animation studios before returning home. It is precisely this kind of journey — an American story reimagined through French artistry and craft, then returned to its origins — that sits at the heart of what TAFFF exists to celebrate."

The film also has a direct institutional link to the festival. In 2024, TAFFF and the Writers Guild of America West presented the workshop "Bringing Graphic Worlds to Life," in which Dungo and "In Waves" producer Priscilla Bertin discussed the journey from page to screen.

Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, welcomed the selection. "I'm thrilled that 'In Waves' will open the American French Film Festival's 30th anniversary edition — a first for an animated feature film," Sarandos said. "As the ultimate stateside destination for French films and series, it's an honor to have TAFFF's support and I look forward to audiences around the world discovering this special film."

The festival's full lineup will be announced Oct. 6, but the television competition is already set. Twelve series will compete for the TAFFF Audience Award and Jury Award:

• "Alice: Pioneer of Cinema" — Directed by Virginie Verrier and Guillaume Lonergan, written by Tim Loane, Claire LeMaréchal and André Gulluni. Bérénice Bejo stars as artist and entrepreneur Alice Guy.
• "All Shapes of Us" — Created by Fanny Riedberger, directed by Jean-Baptiste Pouilloux and Elsa Bennett. Catherine Frot, Claudia Tagbo, Ornella Fleury, Gérémy Crédeville and Marc Riso star in the story of six teenagers at the Hive, a school specializing in eating disorders.
• "Laura's Treatment" — Created and written by Marie Kremer and Frédéric Krivine, directed by Alim Iske. Valérie Bonneton plays a small-town pharmacist and mother who runs a support group for abuse victims and takes matters into her own hands after the judicial system fails the women and a member is murdered.
• "Minimum Security" — Created by John Wax and Gauthier Plancquaert. Audrey Lamy stars in this comedy as the director of a French prison who mothers her blundering team of guards and inmates.
• "One Day We Will Make Love" — Written and directed by Jérôme Bonnell. Natacha Krief and Édouard Sulpice play two strangers with nothing in common except a rough day and a boozy night together, over a weekend in which love blossoms.
• "Paolo" — Created by Sébastien Marnier. Jérôme Niel stars as a man whose admiration for a former schoolmate (Yoann Gasiorowski), now running for mayor, curdles into obsession.
• "Prophet (A)" — Created by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit, based on Jacques Audiard's feature "A Prophet." Mamadou Sidibé plays Malik, a young African immigrant incarcerated for drug smuggling.
• "R 91" — Created by Henri Debeurme and Mathilde Arnaud, directed by Julien Despaux. Élodie Yung, Alban Lenoir, Patrick Mille and Jacques Gamblin star in a thriller aboard the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, where a crew member is found dead and another goes missing during a volatile mission in the eastern Mediterranean.
• "Rebounds: A History of Electro Dance" — Written and directed by Loïc Phil and Marianne Getti. The documentary series follows dancer and choreographer Brandon Masele, known as Miel, through the global history of electro dance and the Tecktonik phenomenon.
• "Singapura" — Created and written by Elsa Marpeau, directed by Danielle Arbid. Nailia Harzoune stars as Justine, who reinvents herself in Singapore until a murder shakes the expatriate circle around her and Élisa (India Hair).
• "Someone Should Ban Sunday Afternoons" — Created by Isabel Coixet. Liv Henneguier, Clara Bretheau, Théo Christine, Balibar and Tim Robbins star in the story of Louise, an aspiring filmmaker mentored by a legendary American writer-director in a Paris harsher than she imagined.
• "Swapped" — Written and created by Alexandra Echkenazi and Vincent Robert, directed by Vania Leturcq and Savina Dellicour. Lula Cotton-Frapier plays Rose, a 19th-century wet nurse who enters a dangerous bourgeois household.

The Television Series Competition is presented in association with Wild Bunch, Federation Studios, France TV Distribution, Disney+, Film & Picture, HBO Max, StudioCanal, SND Group M6 and Zorba Prods.

With Netflix distributing an animated French production about an American surfer, and a competition slate drawing partners from HBO Max to StudioCanal, the anniversary edition underscores how thoroughly transatlantic the festival's mission has become.