Instead of flying about 5,000 miles to Paris to watch the most recent French films, SF State students can just walk into the Coppola Theatre of the Fine Arts building to get a taste of these movies.

The Tournees Film Festival started on Feb. 23 and will run until March 17, featuring a total of five films. The French American Cultural Exchange granted $2,500 to the International Film Club at SF State for the film festival.

Only 110 schools were awarded the grant out of nearly 200 proposal candidates.

Tournees, which is French for "festival tour," has partnered with hundreds of universities since its inception and has made it possible for more than 300,000 students to discover French-language films according to the French American Cultural Exchange.

Delphine Selles, program officer for FACE, worked with many respected French filmmakers and cinema professors, like Dudley Andrew from Yale University, to choose schools that would receive the grant.

"There were a lot of suggestions for collaborating with the cinema department and other clubs on campus to ensure a good attendance from the whole community," Selles said.

The club is working with several groups on campus. The International Education Exchange Counsel, the Office of International Programs, the cinema department and the Associated Students Inc. have all joined forces to create the month-long festival.

According to FACE, France exports new films to roughly 10 states in the U.S. because very few Americans view French films .

"Hopefully, the students who go to the festival will grow an interest in French cinema," Selles said.

Dan Glazebrook, head of the International Film Club and co-chair of the film department for the IEEC, wrote the grant application and did just as he suggested in the proposal.

"Dan has a passion about cinema and it showed in his proposal," Selles said. "He had so many ideas and was going to work hard to make Tournées the best it could be."

Glazebrook opted for the 35mm film projector to showcase the movies onto the big screen. Selles said the 35mm format is very expensive and very difficult to operate.

"I only accept top quality," Glazebrook said.

Glazebrook comes from Southampton, England and said he is reluctant to go back home in six months since he has fallen in love with SF. He and his fellow exchange students are helping with the festival through the IEEC and are excited to bring a taste of Europe to SF State.

Stephanie Fox, also from England, is the international co-chair for the IEEC. Fox headed up the marketing side of the festival by designing hundreds of flyers to advertise throughout the city.

"We wanted to reach out further than campus," Fox said. "We put up flyers in all the independent theaters."

Kathleen Brennan, the domestic co-chair for the IEEC, is a local student from the Bay Area and is thrilled to be part of an international program on campus.

"It is a privilege to have been awarded this grant because it opens up our campus to new cultural experiences," Brennan said.

The festival started out with a documentary called "L'Avocat de la Terreur (Terror's Advocate)." The film was Barbet Shroeder's award-winning portrayal of Jacques Verges, the man who legally defended dictators, terrorists and war criminals.

The rest of the films were chosen to represent each genre of film, according to Glazebrook. Guillaume Canet's "Ne Le Dis a Personne," playing March 17, is a multi-award winning thriller that was said to make the audience's hearts pound.

The last two films of the festival, "La Faute A Fidel (Blame it on Fidel)" and "No Le Dis a Personne (Tell No One)," will be playing March 10 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Coppola Theater. Admission is $4 per person.

For more information about the festival, go to Tournees Web site.