Hollywood stars Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep and Robin Wright Penn descend on the famed French seaside resort of Deauville from Friday for the town's annual festival of American films.

Ford, best known for his four portrayals of whip-cracking archeologist Indiana Jones, has been a frequent visitor to the Deauville filmfest in the past but this year is flying in as its official guest of honour .

Streep and Wright Penn will be on hand, respectively, for the French premieres of "Julie & Julia" and "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee", among 16 US movies showing out of competition at the festival, which closes with its awards ceremony September 13.

Heading the jury selecting the best US film among the 11 features in the running is one of France's best-known film-makers, "Amelie" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, himself releasing a new movie late October.

Also due to step along Deauville's celebrated seaside boardwalk to present their latest releases are Steven Soderbergh with "The Informant", starring Matt Damon as an agri-business exec who blows the whistle on malpractices, and actor-director-producer Andy Garcia for "City Island", a comedy of a dysfunctional family's secrets and lies.

This year's 35th edition of the festival, which last year drew 50,000 filmgoers, shows "films that reflect our times, mixing humour, sarcasm, drama and social satire," said festival founder Lionel Chouchan.

Deauville will also pay a posthumous hommage to Robert Aldrich, the US director of World War II flick "The Dirty Dozen" and the chilling "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane." Aldrich died in 1983.

Last year's top prize went to Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor," a New York-set social drama about illegal immigration.

Source: AFP