Pamela Anderson — Deauville Talent Award

On the occa­sion of its 51^st edi­tion, the Deauville Fes­ti­val is proud to cel­e­brate the career of an artist who has com­bined her work as an actress with a pas­sion­ate com­mit­ment to phil­an­thropy and advo­ca­cy, leav­ing a last­ing mark on the cul­tur­al imagination.

With sev­er­al projects on the hori­zon, Pamela Ander­son cur­rent­ly appears on the big screen in a star­ring role oppo­site Liam Nee­son in Paramount’s Naked Gun reboot. The crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed com­e­dy is direct­ed by Aki­va Schaf­fer. Also this sum­mer, Ander­son recent­ly com­plet­ed a run in the pres­ti­gious Williamstown The­atre Festival’s pro­duc­tion of Camino Real, direct­ed by Dustin Wills. Ander­son played Mar­guerite, a char­ac­ter from Alexan­dre Dumas’ Camille; a role made famous by Sarah Bern­hardt in 19^th cen­tu­ry pro­duc­tions of the play. Lat­er in the year, Ander­son will be seen in Karim Aïnouz’s Rose­bush Prun­ing with Riley Keough, Cal­lum Turn­er, Elle Fan­ning Jamie Bell, Lucas Gage and Tra­cy Letts. Ander­son has com­plet­ed film­ing Kor­nel Mondruczo’s Place to Be, in which she will appear oppo­site Ellen Burstyn, Tai­ka Wait­i­ti and Mur­ray Bartlett, play­ing the daugh­ter of Burstyn’s char­ac­ter. This Sep­tem­ber, Ander­son will star in Sal­ly Potter’s lat­est film, Alma, along­side Dako­ta Fan­ning and Lind­say Dun­can. This fall, she will star in Michael Cera’s fea­ture direc­to­r­i­al debut, Love is not the Answer, co-star­ring Steeve Coogan and Jamie Dornan.

Pamela Ander­son recent­ly starred in the Gia Cop­po­la-direct­ed The Last Show­girl, for which she had been nom­i­nat­ed in the Lead Actress cat­e­go­ry for Gold­en Globe, SAG and Gotham Awards. The fea­ture pre­miered to rave reviews at the Toron­to Film Fes­ti­val, then screened at the San Sebas­t­ian Film Fes­ti­val, where it won the Spe­cial Jury Award, the Zurich Film Fes­ti­val at which Ander­son received the Gold­en Eye Award, the Savan­nah Film Fes­ti­val at which Ander­son received the Mar­quee Award, the Mia­mi Film Fes­ti­val at which Ander­son received the Art of Light Act­ing Award and the Sun Val­ley Film Fes­ti­val at which she received the Pio­neer Award. IndieWire lat­er bestowed the Per­for­mance Award on Ander­son at its IndieWire Hon­ors cer­e­mo­ny. For her per­for­mance, in Vari­ety Aaron Sorkin wrote how “one scene after anoth­er, she keeps aston­ish­ing us” and notes Ander­son gave “one of the finest per­for­mances of this or any year.” The New York Times called Ander­son “daz­zling” and not­ed her “abil­i­ty to be whol­ly vul­ner­a­ble onscreen is rare and won­der­ful.” Dead­line and BBC called Ander­son “a rev­e­la­tion” and Hol­ly­wood Reporter called her “trans­for­ma­tive per­for­mance” “unde­ni­ably affect­ing.” Time Mag­a­zine includ­ed Anderson’s per­for­mance on its list of the “10 Best Movie Per­for­mances of 2024.”

In Feb­ru­ary, Anderson’s cook­ing series Pamela’s Cook­ing with Love, pre­miered on Canada’s Flavour Net­work. On the docuseries, Ander­son cooks with some of the world’s top chefs from her prop­er­ty on Van­cou­ver Island. Ander­son can also be seen in the new sea­son of her pop­u­lar docuseries Pamela’s Gar­den of Eden, which fol­lows the ren­o­va­tion of her Van­cou­ver Island prop­er­ty, along with the ren­o­va­tion of her sons’, Bran­don Thomas Lee and Dylan Lee, Los Ange­les home. 

In addi­tion to her ongo­ing film and tele­vi­sion work, Ander­son works with her sons on Son­sie Skin­care, a veg­an and cru­el­ty-free beau­ty brand that cel­e­brates bal­anced living.

In 2023, Ander­son released her New York Times best­selling mem­oir “Love, Pamela” and starred in the Emmy-nom­i­nat­ed Net­flix doc­u­men­tary pro­duced by her son Bran­don, Pamela, A Love Sto­ry, both of which gave an inti­mate glimpse into her jour­ney. This past Octo­ber, Ander­son released her first cook­book, “I Love You: Recipes from the Heart,” which also became a New York Times best­seller. An out­let to explore a vari­ety of top­ics, includ­ing thoughts, poet­ry and love-based phi­los­o­phy, Ander­son cur­rent­ly writes a week­ly Sub­stack pub­lic jour­nal entry called “The Open Jour­nal with Pamela Anderson.”

Among her oth­er recent act­ing work, Ander­son made her Broad­way debut in 2022 as Roxy Hart in Chica­go, for which she received crit­i­cal acclaim across the board and a Play­bill Award. Ander­son­’s star­ring in the musi­cal served as a moment of rein­ven­tion and a new direc­tion in her career. 

Anderson’s film and tele­vi­sion career began with her role as Lisa the “Tool Time” girl on ABC’s hit series Home Improve­ment. She then joined Bay­watch, which became the most-watched series in the world, with over 1.1 bil­lion view­ers week­ly. Among oth­er projects, Ander­son lat­er starred in the film Barb Wire and the tele­vi­sion series VIP, which she co-cre­at­ed with J.F. Lawton.

Ander­son was born and raised in Lady­smith, Cana­da, where she cur­rent­ly resides.

Fol­low­ing trib­utes to Michelle Williams and Natal­ie Port­man in 2024, the Fes­ti­val con­tin­ues this year to hon­or excep­tion­al artists by pre­sent­ing a Deauville Tal­ent Award to Pamela Ander­son dur­ing the Open­ing Cer­e­mo­ny on Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 5.