Tate Taylor’s The Help to open Deauville

Tate Taylor’s adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 bestseller The Help is set to open the 37th edition of the Deauville Festival of American Film, which runs September 2-11.

Capturing the fragile relationship between black maids and their white employers in the Mississippi in the 1960s amid the emergence of the civil rights movement, the film stars Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer and opens in the US in August. The film screens out of competition.

Other out of competition premieres at Deauville include Famke Janssen’s Oklahoma-set directorial debut Bringing Up Bobby, about a European con artist who goes to the city to escape her past; Nicolas Winding Refn’s Cannes Competition entry Drive, Robert Redford’s The Conspirator, David Dobkin’s body switch comedy The Change Up, Fright Night and the new 3D version of Disney’s The Lion King.

Deauville’s competition line-up is in the process of being finalised and will be announced at a later date, a festival spokeswoman said. Director and screenwriter Olivier Assayas has been named as the president of the main competition jury.

Beyond the films, a key highlight of the 2011 programme will be the presence of Francis Ford Coppola as guest of honour at the festival. The director will participate in a ‘Conversation with Francis Ford Coppola’ at which members of the public can ask him questions on his work.

Tribute will also be paid to Shirley Maclaine, who will receive a literary prize as well as a lifetime achievement award from the festival on the closing night, Todd Solondz, Danny Glover and Naomi Watts.  

The festival will also fete the late Blake Edwards in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Francaise, which is holding a retrospective of the director’s work in Paris this autumn, with a series of screenings and talks on his work, including ‘Dr Edwards and Mr Sellers’.

The second edition of the festival’s Deauville Saison 2, aimed at US TV series, will feature international premieres of the first and second episode of Tom Fontana’s costume drama Borgia as well as a masterclass by the veteran producer.

Beyond the public events, Deauville is also attempting to bump up its industry events this year with launch of the Film Corner, a space dedicated exclusively to buyers and sellers aimed at helping US films find buyers in France.  

Out of competition titles:

Bringing Up Bobby, dir: Famke Janssen

The Conspirator, dir: Robert Redford

Drive, dir: Nicolas Winding Refn

The Change-Up, dir: David Dobkin

Fright Night, dir: Graig Gillespie

The Lion King, dir: Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff

Uncle Sam’s Docs (out of competition)

Buck, dir: Cindy Meehl

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, dir: Alex Stapleton

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times, dir: Andrew Rossi

Project Nim, dir: James Marsh

Revenge of the Electric Car, dir: Chris Paine

Sing Your Song, dir: Susanne Rostock

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, dir: Goran Hugo Olsson