A French friendship

Louisiana a guest at Deauville fest

By LISA NESSELSON

Edward Norton starrer 'The Illusionist' kicks off the 32nd Deauville Festival of American Film on Sept. 1.

PARIS -- The Deauville Festival of American Film has invited the state of Louisiana as a special guest one year after Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans, which was founded by the French in 1718.

The 32nd fest will open Sept. 1 with Neil Burger's "The Illusionist," starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti.

Deauville organizers chose 60 films out of 305 considered; 10 will compete for the grand prize, jury prize and screenwriting nod awarded by a jury headed by Gallic thesp-helmer Nicole Garcia.

Competition lineup consists of Dito Monteil's "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," Paul Fitzgerald's "Forgiven," David Slade's "Hard Candy," Todd Field's "Little Children," Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' "Little Miss Sunshine," Laurie Collyer's "Sherrybaby," Hilary Brougher's "Stephanie Daley," Jason Reitman's "Thank You for Smoking," Billy Kent's "The Oh in Ohio" and Michael Cuesta's "Twelve and Holding."

The Premieres section, devoted to pics with release dates in France, includes some films already skedded for the Venice fest. These include Emilio Estevez's "Bobby," Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia," Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain" and Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center."

The Uncle Sam's Docs sidebar will welcome documentaries ranging from "An Inconvenient Truth" to "Iraq in Fragments" by way of "Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema" and "Dave Chappelle's Block Party."

Richard Trank's "Ever Again," probing the rise of anti-Semitism in contempo Europe, will be one of four docs produced since 1997 by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Vet Sydney Pollack will attend for a career tribute, and Ashley Judd will be the subject of a spotlight during the 10-day fest.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sundance Institute, Deauville has slated a series of films that were shaped at the Sundance labs.

Sundance founder Robert Redford sent a note citing the fact that Deauville and Sundance "share the same philosophy."

This spirit of shared creativity will be evident in a master class, a guest lecture and a tutorial with established screenwriters, to be announced.

Dan Glickman will attend to give the MPA's Michel D'Ornano Prize to "La faute a Fidel" (Blame It on Fidel), a 1970-set tale of political activism from a young girl's POV, directed by Julie Gavras.

Cajun cooking and concerts by imported musicians are planned for the Louisiana-themed pavilion in the U.S. Village installation on the Deauville waterfront, new this year.