About 50 American films and 5 French films premiering for the first time, the festival opens a window into French cinema

Ever since its cre­ation in 1975, the Amer­i­can Film Fes­ti­val, by being anchored in Deauville, has affirmed the idea of a bridge between the two found­ing nations of film; a spark that con­tin­ues to this day. For Amer­i­cans, France has a par­tic­u­lar and his­toric pro­file, from Lafayette to the Nor­mandy land­ings. Mind­ful of this mem­o­ry, the Deauville Fes­ti­val has always forged links between France and the Unit­ed States, fol­low­ing in the wake of the pio­neer Alice Guy: the com­pe­ti­tion for inde­pen­dent film­mak­ers, over­seen by French juries, the prize for the cur­rent edi­tion, grant­ed to a French film­mak­er work­ing in the Unit­ed States, the theme of French-Amer­i­can encoun­ters, and the Ornano-Valen­ti Prize, in which a first French film is hon­ored by Amer­i­can journalists.

Dur­ing the 2020 edi­tion, audi­ences were equal­ly thrilled by both screen­ings and encoun­ters with film­mak­ing teams. The suc­cess of this hap­py mar­riage between Amer­i­can films and French works, accom­pa­nied by tal­ents and orga­nized in accor­dance with extreme­ly rig­or­ous pub­lic health mea­sures, marks a turn­ing point in the festival’s his­to­ry. It will hence­forth extend the beau­ti­ful spir­it of Deauville by open­ing a win­dow into French cin­e­ma, through a selec­tion of unseen films in addi­tion to the 50 Amer­i­can films pre­sent­ed each year. Rec­og­niz­ing this desire from audi­ences and pro­fes­sion­als, the fes­ti­val takes a major step for­ward and con­tin­ues to evolve by con­sol­i­dat­ing its base, affirm­ing the free­dom of an art with­out bor­ders which enno­bles itself through its oth­er­ness. Maybe that’s the world to come…

Bruno Barde
Fes­ti­val Director