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Deauville American Film Festival

Clint Eastwood laisse un autographe au C.I.D
Clint Eastwood en 1992
Festival de Deauville 1992 Clint Eastwood Photo Jacques Benaroche-Sipa

The Deauville American Film Festival: The birth of an internationally renowned event

André Halimi and Lionel Chouchan dreamed of organ­iz­ing an Amer­ic­an Film Fest­iv­al… Michel d’Or­nano — May­or of Deau­ville and Lucien Bar­rière — CEO of the Lucien Bar­rière Group — were look­ing for a way to attract tour­ists to Deau­ville bey­ond the sum­mer sea­son… These four illus­tri­ous char­ac­ters were made to get along! In 1975, the Deau­ville Amer­ic­an Film Fest­iv­al was born.
The cre­ation of the HOMAGE sec­tion attrac­ted the first Amer­ic­an celebrit­ies. This “star catch­er”, as Lionel Chouchan called it, allowed Gregory Peck, Vin­cente Min­nel­li and Sydney Pol­lack to roll out the red car­pet in 1977… The dream of a world-renowned fest­iv­al became a real­ity in Deau­ville, on the Côte Fleur­ie in Normandy.

To the Deau­ville Amer­ic­an Film Fest­iv­al website

"Hollywood has found an orchard in Normandy," Anne d'Ornano sums up nicely.
  • Monica Bellucci sur le tapis rouge en 2007
  • Sylvester Stallone en 1997
  • Ana de Armas lors du Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville en 2022

The Festival inaugurates its Palais des Festivals

The CID Deau­ville Con­ven­tion Cen­ter is built between the Nor­mandy Hotel, the Bar­rière Casino and the sea. To pre­serve the beauty of the water­front, its struc­ture is mostly loc­ated below sea level. To achieve this archi­tec­tur­al feat, 160,000 m³ of sand were extrac­ted, so that the glass roof of the con­ven­tion cen­ter does not exceed 3.50m in height. 18,000m² of spaces entirely ded­ic­ated to the organ­iz­a­tion of pro­fes­sion­al events were designed: meet­ing rooms, exhib­i­tion halls, aud­it­or­i­ums, multi-pur­pose spaces… To give life to events from 60 to 5,000 par­ti­cipants.
On Septem­ber 5, 1992, fest­iv­al-goers flocked to the doors of the Michel d’Or­nano aud­it­or­i­um at the Pal­ais des Con­grès. Many Amer­ic­an celebrit­ies were present, led by Clint East­wood, to inaug­ur­ate the Centre Inter­na­tion­al de Deauville.

Le chantier lors de la construction du C.I.D
"The CID Deauville is like an ocean liner with only the superstructure protruding". Patrick Le Gosles, Architect of the CID Deauville
Les planches de la plage de Deauville

The cabins of the Deauville Boardwalk, symbols of a legendary festival

Since the 1990s, the names of the most fam­ous act­ors and dir­ect­ors invited to the Deau­ville Amer­ic­an Film Fest­iv­al have been painted on the lices of the cab­ins along the prom­en­ade des Planches. Each year, the honored celebrit­ies inaug­ur­ate their cab­ins on the beach, a sym­bol­ic moment that links them to the City of Deau­ville. As you stroll along the 643 meters of the Planches de Deau­ville, you will be able to read no less than 200 names of the biggest stars who came to the Deau­ville Amer­ic­an Film Fest­iv­al.

Download the PASS VIP brochure

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Le Pass VIP Lucy Boynton

The Deauville American Film Festival: Open to professionals and the general public

Independent cinema and the revelation of talent

The Deau­ville Amer­ic­an Film Fest­iv­al is first and fore­most a love affair with inde­pend­ent cinema and fest­iv­al-goers. It is still the only European fest­iv­al of this scale to open its doors to the pub­lic for 10 days of cinema. Each year, more than sixty pro­duc­tions are presen­ted to the pub­lic, on the three screen­ing sites:

  • Deau­ville Con­gress Center ;
  • Casino cinema ;
  • the Morny Deau­ville cinema.

The City of Deau­ville del­eg­ates the co-organ­iz­a­tion of the Deau­ville Amer­ic­an Film Fest­iv­al to the Centre Inter­na­tion­al de Deau­ville (spaces, tech­nic­al aspects, recep­tion of fest­iv­al-goers…) and to the LPSC agency, Le Pub­lic Sys­tème Cinéma (artist­ic pro­gram­ming and scenography).

Best-Of 2022 of the Deauville American Film Festival

An edition of the Festival in a few figures 

  • 60 000 festival-goers
  • 60 previews
  • 3 000 students
Le tapis rouge du Festival du Cinéma Américain
Une projection lors du Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville
Le Centre International de Deauville

Companies also have their own Festival !

Every year, 3,000 VIP Cor­por­ate Passes walk the red car­pet at this major film event in Nor­mandy. This for­mula allows com­pan­ies to build loy­alty among their part­ners, cli­ents and employ­ees by offer­ing them an excep­tion­al even­ing at the CID Deauville.

Dis­cov­er our VIP Com­pany Pass offer

The program of an evening in PASS VIP company

  • VIP welcome

    Per­son­al­ized wel­come at the VIP area of the Deau­ville Amer­ic­an Film Festival

  • Red Carpet and Cocktail

    Red Car­pet Access and Cham­pagne Cock­tail on the Ter­races of the Deau­ville Con­ven­tion Center

  • Preview of a film

    Screen­ing in a reserved place in the Michel d’Or­nano aud­it­or­i­um, in the pres­ence of tal­ents, jur­ies and guests of the Festival.

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