Woody Allen’s ‘A Rainy Day in New York’ to Open Deauville Film Festival

By Elsa Keslassy

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – After being shelved by Amazon Studios in the U.S., Woody Allen’s “A Rainy Day in New York” will be opening the 45th edition of the Deauville American Film Festival in France this fall.

“,” which stars Timotheé Chalamet and Elle Fanning, will be the 8th film by Allen to play at Deauville.

The film will be theatrically released by Mars Films on Sept. 18. Mars Films has released in France most of Allen’s movies, including his previous one “Wonder Wheel” which tanked at the French B.O. after the filmmaker’s adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow made some allegations of sexual assault against him. The allegations led Chalamet to distance himself from Allen and announce that he would be donating his salary from “A Rainy Day in New York” to three charities, including Time’s Up.

The festival’s artistic director Bruno Barde told Variety that Deauville had a long relationship with Allen whom he considers a film master. “I’ve always championed ’s films,” said Barde. “I consider myself a feminist, and I understand #MeToo but Woody Allen had been cleared by the American justice in two different states and I trust the American justice system.”

Barde had faced some heat last year when he chose to give a career tribute to Morgan Freeman shortly after the actor was accused of sexual misconduct.

The festival will close with Olivier Assayas’s “Wasp Network” starring Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez which is also set to play at Venice in competition. Assayas will also be receiving the Honorary Award of the 45th edition of the Deauville Film Festival.

Deauville will take place Sept. 6 -15.