The American Film Festival showcases many independent films made in the USA, as well as the new stars of today and tomorrow, including this year Sebastian Stan, Daisy Ridley, Mikey Madison, Sean Baker…
As evidenced by all the names on the 50th American Film Festival poster (until September 15), many stars have graced the Deauville stage. While the great glories of Hollywood’s golden age are now few and far between, for some years now the festival has been shining its spotlight on the talents of the new generation, actresses and actors honored under the New Hollywood label, such as Ryan Gosling, Jessica Chastaing, Paul Dano, Elle Fanning, Sophie Turner, Ana de Armas…
This year, a number of newcomers have added their names to this prestigious list. Sebastian Stan, best known for his role as Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier in the “Captain America” saga, won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival for Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man”, starring Adam Pearson. The film, which premiered at Deauville, stars Sebastian Stan as a man whose face is deformed by a genetic disease, and who, thanks to a miracle cure, is transformed into a handsome hunk. Born in Romania and then exiled to the United States, the actor said he was proud to receive his first awards in Europe. “We live in a world where the truth is more and more debated,” notes the actor, who will soon be seen as a young Donald Trump in Alie Abbassi’s ‘The Apprentice’ (out October 9), presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
An intergalactic star
It was another saga, the intergalactic “Star Wars”, that made actress Daisy Ridley famous. “She’s a Jedi!” exclaimed writer Nathan Hill, before receiving the Festival’s Literary Award for his novel ‘Bien-être’ (Editions Gallimard). With her character Rey, the actress is indeed a new star of the epic, and showed on the Deauville stage that she really does have all the makings of a star. Also seen in “Le Crime de l’Orient-Express”, “La vie rêvée de Miss Fran”, she also plays the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926, 34 kilometers between France and England, in “Face à la mer : l’histoire de Trudy Ederle”, and will soon be in “Magpie”. I’m incredibly lucky to have found this strength within myself,” says Daisy Ridley.
Last night, it was Mikey Madison’s turn to receive her Hollywood Raising-Star Award in Deauville, just before the premiere screening of “Anora”, Sean Baker’s film which won the Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival (out October 30). The young actress plays the lead role, a sort of “modern-day Cinderella”, a stripper who agrees to marry the son of a Russian oligarch.
A real influence
Also celebrated at Deauville, Sean Baker has already won awards there for two of his films, “Red Rocket” and “Tangerine”. Now a Cannes prize-winner, the filmmaker of “America on the Margins” is one of the leading figures of American independent cinema, as are many of the young directors proud to present their first or second film at the Deauville Festival, which they have heard so much about. Like a sign of recognition. Criticized for rolling out too fine a red carpet for hegemonic Hollywood productions, the organizers created a competition in 1995, a section that has enabled many films to be discovered, many filmmakers to emerge, and thus to showcase quality independent cinema, often conceived outside Hollywood.
The many American filmmakers wishing a happy fiftieth anniversary to the Normandy festival, where most of them have won awards in the past, can be seen in the filmed messages broadcast before the screenings. They include Todd Solondz, Spike Jones, Karyn Kusama, Christopher Nolan, Tony Kaye, Kelly Reichardt… and Damien Chazelle, the director of “La La Land”, who won the Grand Prix for his first film “Whiplash” ten years ago. All thank the Festival for the influence it has had on their subsequent careers.
While some of these artists are now part of the New Hollywood movement, the name inevitably refers to the counter-culture movement of the 70s, aptly dubbed the New Hollywood, with the likes of Brian de Palma, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola… most of whom came to Deauville. The legendary filmmaker behind “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather”, Coppola will be back in Normandy this Friday evening to present the premiere of “Megalopolis” (out September 25), his major science-fiction film that he has been working on for several decades. This “Roman epic in modern America” was selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Patrick TARDIT
50th American Film Festival, Deauville, France, until September 15. www.festival-deauville.com
