Deauville 2026 unveils a jury led by Roschdy Zem

The Deauville American Film Festival has revealed the main jury and the 13 independent features selected for the competition of its 52nd edition. Taking place in Normandy from Friday, September 4, to Sunday, September 13, 2026, the festival will bring together emerging filmmakers, internationally recognised artists and members of the public for ten days devoted to the many faces of American cinema. The main jury will present its awards during the Awards Ceremony on September 12, one day before the festival officially ends.

French actor, filmmaker and screenwriter Roschdy Zem will preside over the nine-member jury. His fellow jurors are actor, playwright and stage director Simon Abkarian; actress, writer and screenwriter Camille Chamoux; actress Cécile de France; filmmaker, screenwriter and producer Euzhan Palcy; actor Raphaël Personnaz; filmmaker and screenwriter Lola Quivoron; writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr; and actress, filmmaker and screenwriter Laura Smet.

The composition deliberately reaches beyond acting and directing. Theatre, literature and screenwriting are represented alongside performance and filmmaking, offering the jury several ways of approaching works that move between animation, western, comedy, period drama, satire and coming-of-age storytelling.

Roschdy Zem brings four decades of experience to the presidency

Over more than four decades, Roschdy Zem has developed one of the most substantial careers in contemporary French cinema. As an actor, he has worked with filmmakers including Xavier Beauvois, André Téchiné, Pierre Jolivet, Arnaud Desplechin, Laetitia Masson, Louis Garrel, Rachid Bouchareb and Rebecca Zlotowski. He won the César Award for Best Actor for his performance in Oh Mercy! (Roubaix, une lumière), directed by Arnaud Desplechin.

His directing career began with Bad Faith and continued with Omar Killed Me, Bodybuilder, Chocolat, Persona non grata and The Family (Les Miens). These films repeatedly explore identity, family ties, social invisibility and the difficulty of passing stories and values from one generation to another. That taste for nuanced characters and moral complexity makes his appointment particularly relevant to a competition described as artistically and ethically ambitious.

Thirteen films chart a restless and disenchanted America

The 2026 competition encompasses New York nightlife, 1990s gay San Francisco, disadvantaged Los Angeles neighbourhoods, post-Civil War Wisconsin and post-Covid New Mexico. Its stories also reach the residential outskirts of Florida, Ohio and Arkansas, as well as an eccentric small town in Georgia. Together, the films promise an America caught between its enduring desire for youth, love and freedom and the realities of isolation, cruelty and lost illusions.

The selected films are A Prayer for the Dying, the debut feature by Dara Van Dusen and a French premiere; Club Kid, the first feature by Jordan Firstman; Company by Casey Affleck, presented as a French premiere; and Everybody Digs Bill Evans, the first feature by Grant Gee and another French premiere.
The line-up continues with Here I’m Alive by Joshua Z. Weinstein, I’ll Be Gone in June, the debut feature by Katharina Rivilis, and If I Go Will They Miss Me by Walter Thompson-Hernández. All three offer significant discovery value for French audiences, with the first and third officially announced as French premieres.
Completing the competition are Méli-Mélo, the first feature by Leah Nelson; Mouse by Kelly O’Sullivan; Party USA by Jared Sprouse; Queen at Sea by Lance Hammer; Test, the debut feature by Sam McConnell; and The Liberation of Rita Cooper by Guy Nattiv. The festival identifies Mouse, Party USA, Queen at Sea, Test and The Liberation of Rita Cooper as French premieres.

Six of the 13 selections are explicitly presented by the festival as first features: A Prayer for the Dying, Club Kid, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, I’ll Be Gone in June, Méli-Mélo and Test. This emerging-filmmaker presence sits alongside films from established actors and directors, reinforcing Deauville’s traditional position as a meeting point between discovery and recognition.

Ethan Hawke to receive the Deauville Talent Award

Ethan Hawke will receive a Deauville Talent Award during the Opening Ceremony on Friday, September 4. Across almost four decades as an actor, writer and director, he has accumulated five Academy Award nominations, covering both acting and screenwriting. His career stretches from Explorers and Dead Poets Society to Training Day, Boyhood, First Reformed and the Before trilogy.

The tribute will be followed by the French premiere of The Weight, released in France as Les Contrebandiers. Directed by Padraic McKinley, the film stars Ethan Hawke and is scheduled for a French theatrical release through SND on September 16. Several of his landmark films will also be screened. In a characteristically Deauville touch, a beach cabin bearing his name will be inaugurated during a public ceremony, a lasting local honour traditionally associated with the festival’s major guests.

Sophie Thatcher named Deauville’s 2026 Rising Star

Sophie Thatcher will receive the Deauville Rising-Star Award on Saturday, September 5. Originally from Chicago, she began performing on stage before making her feature-film breakthrough in the science-fiction western Prospect. Her international profile grew through her role as the teenage Natalie in Yellowjackets, followed by appearances in The Boogeyman, Heretic and Companion.

The award ceremony will precede a screening of Her Private Hell in the presence of Sophie Thatcher and director Nicolas Winding Refn. The film marks the director’s return to theatrical filmmaking after a decade away from the big screen. Its story follows a rising actress whose best friend marries her father while a serial killer terrorises a futuristic metropolis. The pairing reflects the actress’s attraction to filmmakers with distinctive visions and to roles that resist easy categorisation.

Lio presides over the Revelation Jury

The separate Revelation Jury, which will reward one of the competition’s emerging voices, is led by singer and actress Lio. She is joined by actresses Noée Abita, Marion Barbeau and Manon Clavel, as well as actor Sayyid El Alami. The five artists will present the Revelation Award during the September 12 ceremony.

This youthful jury complements the main panel: while Roschdy Zem and his colleagues will consider the competition’s principal awards, the Revelation Jury is specifically tasked with identifying a filmmaker whose early work may point towards the future of cinema.

A Statue of Liberty watches over the 52nd edition

The 2026 poster features the face of the Statue of Liberty, created in France and inaugurated in New York in 1886—exactly 140 years before this edition. The festival presents the monument’s iron face as a symbol of hospitality, generosity and faith in the future, but also as a watchful presence reflecting the visionary role traditionally played by American artists and New York City.

The image gives the edition an evocative visual identity at a time when many competition titles appear concerned with fractured families, social disconnection and uncertain futures. Against those darker stories, the Statue of Liberty retains the promise expressed by the poster’s official slogan: “En liberté!” or “In Freedom.”

Deauville 2026: key events to come

Opening Ceremony and Ethan Hawke tribute Where: Deauville American Film Festival, Deauville, Normandy When: Friday, September 4, 2026 What: Presentation of the Deauville Talent Award, public inauguration of a beach cabin bearing Ethan Hawke’s name and premiere screening of The Weight (Les Contrebandiers).

Sophie Thatcher Rising-Star Award Where: Deauville American Film Festival, Deauville, Normandy When: Saturday, September 5, 2026 What: Award presentation followed by Her Private Hell, attended by Sophie Thatcher and Nicolas Winding Refn.

Awards Ceremony Where: Deauville American Film Festival, Deauville, Normandy When: Saturday, September 12, 2026 What: The main jury and Revelation Jury announce their respective 2026 prizes.

52nd Deauville American Film Festival Where: Deauville, Normandy, France When: Friday, September 4-Sunday, September 13, 2026 What: Ten days of American cinema, public screenings, premieres, tributes and meetings with filmmakers and performers.

(Source : press release)