James Cameron Cancels Deauville Appearance (Report)

James Cameron was due to receive the specially conceived 40th Anniversary Award from the Deauville Film Festival, but Disney now says that the Oscar-winning director will not be making the trip to the seaside town in September.

Newspaper Le Figaro is reporting that Cameron, who was also due to present the French premiere of his latest film Deepsea Challenge 3D on Sept. 13, will not be attending the film festival. The studio did not give any further explanation for his absence. The film opened in the U.S. in limited release on Aug. 8 and is set to open in France on Sept. 17.

Deauville confirmed his appearance at the festival on July 16, and announced the creation of the 40th Anniversary Award to honor Cameron’s career.

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“It is fitting that for its 40 years of existence, the Deauville American Film Festival is honoring this outstanding filmmaker, creating the 40th Anniversary Award especially for him,” said festival director Bruno Barde in a statement at the time, citing the director’s impact on “transforming movie-making.”

Other tributes have been announced, including career retrospectives for Will Ferrell, Jessica Chastain and Ray Liotta, who are all expected to be in attendance. The festival also announced in a tweet on Tuesday that it will pay homage to Robin Williams, but will reveal more details later.

This year’s jury president is legendary French filmmaker Costa-Gavras. The festival will announce the remaining jury members and its full slate of films and tributes on Aug. 20. It runs from Sept. 5-14 in northern France.

Disney did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Aug. 19, 7:56 a.m. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that James Cameron‘s Deepsea Challenge 3D was set to open in the U.S. on Aug. 21. The film opened in limited release on Aug. 8. The Hollywood Reporter regrets the error.