Deauville American Film Festival has unveiled the 14 US features for its 50th anniversary edition running September 6-15 in the Normandy seaside town.

In The Summers

Source: Sundance

‘In The Summers’

They include Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s 2024 Sundance prize-winner In The Summers, Cannes-premiering titles including Roberto Minervini’s The Damned and Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve At Miller’s Point, and Christy Hall’s taxi drama Daddio.

Eight of the films are debut features, among them David Fortune’s Color Book which world-premiered at Tribeca and Brandt Andersen’s The Strangers’ Case which made its debut at Berlin.

Benoit Magimel heads up this year’s Deauville jury alongside Ludivine Sagnier, Agathe Riedinger, Martin Bouboulon, Damien Bonnard, Emilie Dequenne, Elias Belkedar, Ibrahim Maalouf and Lou Lampras.

Michael Douglas is the festival’s guest of honour, while James Gray and Frederick Wiseman are due to attend for career tributes. The festival will also showcase 50 American feature films that have “changed the way we look at the world” including DW Griffith’s Intolerance and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

The anniversary edition will be led by new artistic director Aude Hesbert, who assumed the reins after sexual harassment allegations forced the ouster of longtime director Bruno Barde.

Shane Atkinson’s feature debut LaRay swept the top awards at last year’s festival, receiving the grand prize, the audience award and the critics award, with Sean Price Williams’ The Sweet East and Babak Jalali’s Fremont sharing the jury prize.

Competition line-up:

  • Bang Bang dir. Vincent Grashaw
  • Color Book dir. David Fortune*
  • Daddio dir. Christy Hall*
  • Exhibiting Forgiveness dir. Titus Kaphar*
  • Gazer dir. Ryan J. Sloan*
  • In The Summers dir. Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio*
  • La Cocina dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios
  • The Damned dir. Roberto Minervini
  • Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point dir. Tyler Taormina
  • Sing Sing dir. Greg Kwedar
  • The Knife dir. Nnamdi Asomugha*
  • The School Duel dir. Todd Wiseman*
  • The Strangers’ Case dir. Brandt Andersen*
  • We Grown Now dir. Minhal Baig

* Debut features

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