“LaRoy”, by Shane Atkinson, received the Grand Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival on Saturday September 9, marked this year by the strike in Hollywood which deprived it of the presence of many stars.
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LaRoy, the first feature film by Californian director Shane Atkinson received the Grand Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival on the evening of Saturday September 9. The film follows the misadventures of Ray (played by John Magaro), who looks like a poor guy. He discovers that his wife is cheating on him and is about to end his life in the parking lot of a motel when a stranger bursts into his car, thinking he is dealing with the killer he has hired. Ray will accept this unexpected mission, hoping to earn the respect of his peers.
Thriller with a dark mood counterbalanced by black humor, LaRoy (in theaters in April 2024) was favored by many critics present in Deauville, who saw in its tone and direction the legacy of the Coen brothers or Quentin Tarantino. It also seduced the jury of the 49th edition of the Deauville festival, chaired by the French actor and director Guillaume Canet, who chose it from fourteen films in competition for the Grand Prix. This prize was awarded last year to Aftersun by Charlotte Wells.
The strike immobilizes the cinema
In total, the Deauville festival presented 80 works in various categories. The 2023 edition was sadly special because it was largely impacted by the strike which is paralyzing the cinema industry in the United States. For more than two months, the actors have joined the screenwriters in this standoff with the Hollywood studios to obtain better remuneration and supervision of the use of artificial intelligence.
Their powerful union, the SAG-AFTRA, prohibits all its members, even the most illustrious, from filming during the strike but also from participating in the promotion of films. Deauville thus had to say goodbye to the announced participations of Natalie Portman and Jude Law, as well as those of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Peter Dinklage.
Despite everything, the festival wanted to maintain its programming, with all the same the presence of directors who are not involved in this historic strike, like Todd Haynes (May December with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore), Rebecca Miller (She came to me, with Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei and Anne Hathaway) or Jerry Schatzberg, 96 years old, to whom a tribute was paid. Shane Atkinson also traveled to Normandy to defend LaRoy.