The crème de la crème of French cinema, and some American stars such as Kristen Stewart and Zoey Deutch, turned up at the Deauville American Film Festival to attend a glitzy dinner hosted by Canal+ Group and Chanel on Friday evening. Hosted at a historical landmark called Les Franciscaines – a former convent dating back 1875 — the bash celebrated both French and American talent, as well as the commitment of the festival’s two main sponsors, Canal+ and Chanel.
Alongside Stewart, who won the Revelation Award at Deauville with her directorial debut “The Chronology of Water” and took part in a masterclass, Deutch was honored at the festival with the New Hollywood Award and presented “Nouvelle Vague” with director Richard Linklater. Other guests included French-Iranian actor and filmmaker Zar Amir Ebrahimi; directors Bertrand Bonello, Cédric Klapisch, Claude Lelouch, Alex Lutz, Mia Hansen-Løve; actors Sandrine Kiberlain, Damien Bonnard, Jonathan Cohen, Ana Girardot, Lyna Khoudri, Vincent Macaigne, Benoît Magimel and Kad Merad; as well as jury members Golshifteh Farahani, Thomas Cailley, Eye Haïdara, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Benjamin Millepied, Katell Quillévéré, Emilie Tronche, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Suzy Bemba, Bilal Hassani, Julien Colonna and Anaïde Rozam.
During the dinner, which began with a classical concert, Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada emphasized the TV group’s role as a leading partner of French and European cinema. Created in 1984, it has since done deals with Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros, as well as U.S. streamers such Netflix, Apple+, HBO and Paramount+.
Canal+, which is active in theatrical distribution with direct operations in major territories such as France, the U.K., Germany and Australia/New Zealand, is currently in exclusive negotiations to buy a 34-percent stake in UGC, the Paris-headquartered film studio that was founded in 1971 and operates one of France’s leading cinema chains.
Last March, the banner signed an agreement with local film guilds to invest at least €480 million in French and European films over the next three years (€120 million less than during the previous three years). At the Deauville dinner, Saada said the group still had the ambition to finance debut films and took the example of Stewart’s “The Chronology of Water” as a movie that was pre-bought by Canal+.
“About a third of the films we finance each year are debut films, and we also support second films because sometimes the second film is even more difficult, especially when the first film was not a big commercial success,” Saada said. “The icing on the cake is when the film is directed by a woman, because it is obviously much more difficult for women to find funding, as in many fields. So at Canal+, we pay particular attention to films directed by women. More than 40% of first films are directed by women.
Deauville is one of the several festivals championed by Chanel, which is highly involved in the film world through diverse initiatives spearheaded by Elsa Heizmann, the global director of cinematic relations. During the festival, the fashion house helped organize a masterclass with Stewart, one of its ambassadors, who discussed the French films that influenced her as an actor and filmmaker. Chanel was also involved in “Nouvelle Vague,” for which it dressed Deutch, and contributed to the production of Alice Winocour’s “Couture” starring Angelina Jolie and set during the Paris Fashion Week.
Maxime Saada and Claude Lelouch
Francois Goize