The Deauville Festival of American Film has unveiled its line-up for the upcoming 35th edition.
It has also announced that Jean-Piere Jeunet will be president of the competition jury, which so far includes nine US indie titles.
European and French premieres include Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams; Sandra Bullock vehicle The Proposal; Sundance favourite (500) Days Of Summerwith Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel; Raymond de Felitta’s City Island with Andy Garcia, who will be the subject of a tribute during the festival, and [b Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s Gamer with Gerard Butler[/b . Julia Migenes’ Concert will be the opening night film.
The competition films include Sundance breakouts Humpday by Lynn Shelton and Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire from Lee Daniels.
Other titles are:
* Sophie Barthes’ Cold Souls
* Daniel Devila’s Harrison Montgomery
* Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre
* Dagur Kari’s The Good Heart
* Jonathan Liebesman’s The Killing Room
* Oren Moverman’s The Messenger
* Bob Goldthwait’s World’s Greatest Dad
Joining Jeunet on the jury are actor Dany Boon – who stars in Jeunet’s upcoming Micmacs – actresses Hiam Abbas, Emilie Dequenne, Sandrine Kiberlain, Geraldine Pailhas, screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie and director Patrice Leconte.
A parallel competition section Uncle Sam’s Docs this year has seven titles including Dana Perry’s Boy Interrupted and Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc.
The Michel d’Ornano prize for a first French film will be handed to Lea Fehner’s Qu’un Seul Tient Et Les Autres Suivront. The director and producers will each receive $4,256 (€3,000) while the distributor, Rezo Films, will be given $14,186 (€10,000) to help with the film’s release.
Meanwhile, tributes will be paid to director/producer Robert Aldrich; Airplane! impresarios David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker; actress Robin Wright Penn and Garcia. Perennial Deauville favorite Harrison Ford will be the festival’s special guest.
The Deauville festival is a key part of Europe’s return-from-holidays period as films from the US studios use it as a launch pad onto the continent for their big autumn titles. It also shined a spotlight on independent films that may not otherwise receive press coverage.
This year’s edition runs September 4 – 13.