History

From 5^th to 11^th Sep­tem­ber 1977.
Anne d’Ornano suc­ceed­ed her hus­band, Michel d’Ornano, as May­or of Deauville. «Hol­ly­wood has found itself an orchard in Nor­mandy» as she fetch­ing­ly put it dur­ing the Festival’s open­ing cer­e­mo­ny. Under impe­tus from Lionel Chouchan, the Fes­ti­val inno­vat­ed and decid­ed hence­forth to «pay trib­ute»: Gre­go­ry Peck, Vin­cente Minel­li and Syd­ney Pol­lack were present on the Board­walk on this occa­sion. How­ev­er, Eliz­a­beth Tay­lor, to whom the Fes­ti­val had decid­ed to present the finest of trib­utes, can­celled her trip to Deauville at the last minute. The screen­ing of the film Star Wars saw the Festival’s first big rush. And enthu­si­as­tic audi­ences fell under the spell of the char­ac­ter Annie Hall in Woody Allen’s film, which pre­miered at the Festival.