Natalie Portman and Claude Lelouch took part in the awards ceremony of the 50th Deauville American Film Festival on Saturday, September 14, where the jury chaired by Benoît Magimel crowned directors Nnamdi Asomugha and Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio.
A week after Michael Douglas, who came to receive an honorary award in the Normandy seaside town, Natalie Portman was awarded a Deauville Talent Award by Isabelle Adjani during the last evening of the festival which officially ends on Sunday September 15.
“I’m an American living in France and celebrating the meeting of American and French cinema is truly incredible”Portman said on the red carpet, hours after inaugurating a booth in her name on the famous stage. The 43-year-old Israeli-American actress, best known for her roles in Léon, Black Swan or the trilogy Star Wars, noted “French recognition of American cinema and American recognition of French cinema, I am very lucky to live in these two worlds.”
The jury prize, chaired by French actor Benoît Magimel, was awarded to The Knife de Nnamdi Asomugha. The Grand Prize went to In the Summers by Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio.
Present on Saturday evening to present his latest feature film with the film crew including actress Elsa Zylberstein, director Claude Lelouch told AFP that he “stage fright, like a beginner but I am delighted to close this festival with a film called Eventually“. “It doesn’t make me any younger, during these 50 years I have come regularly to this festival, there are so many memories that it would be shameful to privilege one” added Mr. Lelouch. “I managed to get through the rain, and I’m delighted to have been able to make 51 films,” concluded the French filmmaker, whose Oscar winner A man and a woman and its final scene filmed on the same beach in Deauville.
On Friday evening, Francis F. Coppola also presented his latest film, Megalopolis.
The new festival director Aude Hesbert replaced Bruno Barde at short notice in June, who was dismissed from his duties after 25 years at the head of the festival following a Mediapart investigation into accusations of harassment and sexual assault.
At the end of August, it was trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, accused several years ago of sexual assault on a minor, who had to leave the jury. He was acquitted in 2020 in this case but “a malaise in the team”, according to the management, had excluded him.
