Deauville 2026 : Club Kid wins Grand Prix and Audience Award

The 52nd Deauville American Film Festival delivered a striking double endorsement on Saturday, September 12, as Club Kid, the feature debut of Jordan Firstman, won both the Grand Prix and the City of Deauville Audience Award. The result brought together the verdict of the main jury and the response of festivalgoers around the same film, giving Club Kid the clearest momentum of the 2026 competition. The 126-minute American feature follows Peter, a New York party promoter whose frantic, carefree existence is disrupted when Arlo, the ten-year-old son he never knew he had, arrives at his door. Firstman also stars in the film, alongside Reggie Absolom, Diego Calva and Cara Delevingne. In France, Metropolitan FilmExport is handling distribution, with a theatrical release scheduled for November 4, 2026.

A jury led by Roschdy Zem chooses from 13 competition films

The official awards were decided from 13 competition titles by a nine-member jury chaired by Roschdy Zem, with Simon Abkarian, Camille Chamoux, Cécile de France, Euzhan Palcy, Raphaël Personnaz, Lola Quivoron, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr and Laura Smet. That composition brought together actors, filmmakers, a playwright and an acclaimed novelist, reflecting Deauville’s long-standing interest in judging American cinema through a broad French cultural lens. The 2026 competition itself mixed established figures with first-time feature directors: the festival identified Club Kid as a first film, alongside several other debuts in the selection. Its Grand Prix therefore gives Firstman an especially visible launch at a festival that has historically used its competition to spotlight emerging American independent voices.

Tangles and If I Go Will They Miss Me share the Jury Prize

Rather than naming a single Jury Prize winner, the jury split the distinction between two very different films. Tangles, the first feature directed by Leah Nelson, received the Jury Prize and later added the Critics’ Prize, another notable double in the final results. The 103-minute animated film is set in 1990s San Francisco and follows Sarah as she returns to her childhood home when her mother begins losing her memory. Its voice cast includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston, Beanie Feldstein, Seth Rogen and Samira Wiley. Nour Films will release it in France on January 20, 2027. The convergence of jury and critics around the film makes it one of the edition’s most broadly endorsed discoveries.

Walter Thompson-Hernández turns a Sundance short into a Deauville winner

The second Jury Prize went to If I Go Will They Miss Me, directed and written by Walter Thompson-Hernández. The 91-minute drama follows twelve-year-old Lil Ant beneath the flight path of Los Angeles International Airport, transforming his working-class neighborhood into a personal mythology while he searches for a connection with his father. The feature expands Thompson-Hernández’s award-winning 2022 Sundance short of the same name, an unusual creative path that gives the Deauville recognition an added sense of continuity rather than overnight discovery. Danielle Brooks and J. Alphonse Nicholson lead the cast. Wayna Pitch will release the film in France on January 6, 2027.

Mouse wins the Revelation Prize after an intimate filmmaking partnership

The Revelation Prize went to Mouse, co-directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson. The film centers on lifelong friends Callie and Minnie, whose final summer before senior year is shattered by an unexpected tragedy, pushing Minnie toward Callie’s mother. The award also extends a collaboration that has become a recognizable strand of contemporary American independent cinema: O’Sullivan and Thompson previously worked together on Saint Frances, which won an audience award at South by Southwest, before co-directing Ghostlight, presented at Sundance in 2024. Mouse is their second film as co-directors. Tandem is the French distributor, and the cast includes Sophie Okonedo, Katherine Mallen-Kupferer, Tara Mallen, Chloe Coleman, Iman Vellani and David Hyde Pierce.

Test receives the CANAL+ Prize, while subscribers join the jury process

Test, directed by Sam McConnell, received the CANAL+ Prize for best film. The award had a particularly participatory dimension in 2026: CANAL+ invited five subscribers to join its festival jury and select the winner. McConnell’s film is his fiction feature directing debut and is based on a semi-autobiographical screenplay by lead actor Brock Yurich. The project therefore fits one of the strongest patterns running through this year’s awards: first features and filmmakers moving into new creative territory were not peripheral to the palmarès but central to it. The film was produced by Tandem Pictures.

La Gradiva receives the Prix d’Ornano-Valenti

On the French side of the festival, La Gradiva by Marine Atlan received the Prix d’Ornano-Valenti, supported by the Motion Picture Association and the Franco-American Cultural Fund. The 145-minute French-Italian film follows a group of French high-school students on a school trip to Naples and Pompeii, where fascination with the preserved bodies and ruins gives way to an escalating mixture of desire and anger. Written by Atlan with Anne Brouillet, the film is distributed by Tandem and is scheduled for release in France on October 21, 2026. Its presence in the final awards underlines Deauville’s parallel role as a bridge between American cinema and emerging French filmmaking.

A 52nd edition built around discovery as much as prestige

The prize list arrived near the end of a festival running from September 4 to 13, with 80 films announced across nine sections. The week also mixed competition discoveries with major career celebrations, including Deauville honors for prominent international guests. Yet the final competitive verdict leaned decisively toward discovery: Club Kid, Tangles and Test were all presented by the festival as first features, while Mouse confirmed a young directing partnership and If I Go Will They Miss Me expanded a short-film idea into a feature. The 2026 palmarès consequently reads less like a hierarchy of familiar names than a snapshot of filmmakers in transition, with the rare Grand Prix–Audience Award double for Club Kid providing its clearest headline.

Deauville 2026: awards recap

Grand Prize —Club Kid directed by Jordan Firstman.
City of Deauville Audience Award —Club Kid directed by Jordan Firstman.
Jury Prize —Tangles by Leah Nelson.
Jury Prize —If I Go Will They Miss Me by Walter Thompson-Hernández.
Revelation Prize — Mouse by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson.
CANAL+ Prize —Test by Sam McConnell.
Critics’ Prize —Tangles by Leah Nelson.
Prix d’Ornano-Valenti —La Gradiva by Marine Atlan.

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Photos and videos : Boris Colletier / Mulderville