Michael Shannon Deauville Talent Award

Michael Shan­non, actor in 100 films

“There’s no oth­er reward for an actor beyond learn­ing. And knowl­edge is what builds the most sol­id actors.” Michael Shannon

Cred­it­ed with over 100 films and series and thou­sands of the­atri­cal per­for­mances, a two-time Deauville Fes­ti­val attendee with Jeff Nichols’ Take Shel­ter (2011) and Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes (2015), two Grand Prize-win­ning films, Michael Shan­non returns this year to receive a Deauville Tal­ent Award.

Trou­bling strangeness

From his birth­place of Ken­tucky to Chica­go and Lon­don where he cut his teeth on the boards, Michael Shan­non has from the out­set been the antithe­sis of the Hol­ly­wood actor, a cen­trifu­gal force, both geo­graph­i­cal­ly and artistically.

Avid for expe­ri­ence, his quest has been not for seduc­tion or the norm, but for the unique­ness and unease that make his char­ac­ters so rich.

His atyp­i­cal physique is sure­ly what has dri­ven him to play trou­bling and tor­ment­ed roles, char­ac­ters flirt­ing with insan­i­ty or vio­lence. A para­noid fam­i­ly man prone to vio­lent night­mares in Jeff Nichols’ Take Shel­ter (2011), con­sumed by mad­ness in Bug (2007), William Friedkin’s con­tained thriller pre­sent­ed at the Deauville Fes­ti­val, he also played the dis­turb­ing and dis­turbed neigh­bor in Sam Mendes’ Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Road, a role which earned him an Oscar nomination.

A mem­o­rable vil­lain in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013) and a ter­ri­fy­ing hit man in Richard Kuklinski’s The Ice­man (2013), a crooked real estate agent in 99 Homes and a puri­tan fun­da­men­tal­ist in the series Board­walk Empire… Michael Shan­non con­tin­ues to explore the shad­owy under­bel­ly of America.

This year, the Deauville Fes­ti­val will rec­og­nize the excep­tion­al career of a tremen­dous actor who has lent a new face to Amer­i­can inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma over the past 15 years, through a ret­ro­spec­tive of his films, with the actor in attendance.