The Festival was created by French distributor Sophie Dulac. Its aim is to showcase American independent films, the focus of its main competitive selection, along with offering a wide array of movie premieres, both American and French. Participating movie theaters are all located alongside the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
2012 edition
The first edition of the Festival was held from June 6 to June 12, with actors Lambert Wilson and Michael Madsen presiding. During the first edition, more than 15,000 people attended, with more than 50 films screened. Besides the Official Selection of American Independent Films, the Festival's main event, three other non-competitive selections were presented: French Galas, American Galas and Oscar Nominated Foreign Language Films. A competitive Official Shorts Selection was also showcased. A tribute to Harvey Weinstein was held to celebrate his career and a retrospective of 11 of his films was shown throughout the week. Three Audience Prizes were presented during the Closing Ceremony, held at the Publicis Cinema.
2013 edition
The second edition of the Festival was held from June 12 to June 18, with actor Olivier Martinez presiding. Struck by Lightning, by Brian Daddelly, was screened at the Opening Ceremony, while Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's Imogene was shown at the Closing Ceremony. Along with its competitive Official Selections for American feature-length films, American Shorts and French Shorts, the Festival presented a wide selection of important American and French movie premieres, a 7-film Brad Pitt retrospective to mark the release of World War Z and The TCM Cinema Essentials, a thirteen-film selection of American and French classics. Three Audience Prizes were presented during the Closing Ceremony, held at the Publicis Cinema.
2014 edition
The third edition was held from June 11 to June 17, 2014, with actors Jacqueline Bisset and Bertrand Tavernier as Honorary Presidents and Keanu Reeves, Agnès Varda, Whit Stillman and Mike Figgis as Guests of Honor. More than 120,000 people attended the Festival, with more than 110 films screened. Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz's was shown at the Closing Ceremony. Along with its competitive Official Selections for American feature-length films, American Shorts and French Shorts, the Festival presented a wide selection of important American and French movie premieres, the TCM Cinema Essentials, a thirteen-film selection of American classics, and the Great French Classics, a five-film selection. Both Honorary Presidents held masterclasses, and the Guests of Honor presented each a selection of their respective filmographies. Three Audience Prizes, a Bloggers Jury Award and a Youth Jury Award were presented during the Closing Ceremony, held at the Publicis Cinema. Along with the US in Progress program, a new event targeted at industry professionals was held alongside the Festival: titled Paris Coproduction Village it brought together 12 international feature film projects in development looking for French and European partners, as well as 6 projects from the Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation Residence.
2015 edition
The fourth edition was scheduled to be held from 10 to 16 June 2015.
