Hail "César"s. France's Favorite Pictures

If by some stroke of bad luck or homegrown Hollywood love for The Descendants or Hugo,  The Artist is derailed at the Oscars on February 26th, it could still take home double handfuls of trophies at the Césars. While I'm sure all countries hate their own awards being called "_____'s Oscars", it's easy shorthand. Oscar was first, after all, thus laying the groundwork for all of this "Best Movie This, Best Movie That" until the end of time. 

France's Best Picture lineup has homegrown hits, successful exports and their Oscar submission

The Artist is up for 10 awards at the Césars... same number as the Oscars! The Cesars allow more than 5 nominees a category so it seems a bit like everyone is nominated. Other favorites from the French industry are two female-helmed films: Valerie Donzelli's gutsy vivid memory piece War is Declared (opening today in the States. Highly recommended!) and another actress turned director Mäiwenn's Polisse. (I always feel the need to remind people that Mäiwenn was the blue opera diva in The Fifth Element.) 

Film Experience favorite Carmen Maura is also up for a statue for her work in Women on the Sixth Floor.

Finally, in this quick take, we always get a kick out of the "foreign film" categories across the oceans when things are suddenly flipped and Hollywood itself is the foreign entity. Incredibly, The King's Speech is still with us (ARGH!) and it's up against other previous / current Oscar nominees like Black Swan, Incendies, and A Separation as well as films that were far too auteurist or contemporary for Oscar like Melancholia and Drive. Rounding out their foreign category is The Dardenne Brothers The Kid With the Bicycle. Great lineup, eh?

Full list of nominations after the jump and sexy pictures of a few "newcomer" nominations, since we love the French and we love eye candy. Who would you love to run into if you had a ticket to the Césars?

Best Picture
L’Exercice De L’Etat, producer: Denis Freyd
La Guerre Est Déclarée, producer: Edouard Weil
Le Havre, producer: Fabienne Vonier
Intouchables, producers: Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun
Pater, producer: Michel Seydoux
Polisse, producer: Alain Attal
The Artist, producer: Thomas Langmann

Director
Alain Cavalier – Pater
Valérie Donzelli – La Guerre Est Déclarée
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Aki Kaurismäki – Le Havre
Maïwenn – Polisse
Pierre Schoeller – L’Exercice De L’Etat
Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache – Intouchables

Karin Viard (Potiche!) in a scene from "Polisse"Actress
Ariane Ascaride, Les Neiges Du Kilimandjaro
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Leïla Bekhti, La Source Des Femmes
Valérie Donzelli, La Guerre Est Déclarée
Marina Foïs, Polisse
Marie Gillain, Toutes Nos Envies
Karin Viard, Polisse

Actor
Sami Bouajila, Omar M’a Tuer
François Cluzet, Intouchables
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Olivier Gourmet, L’Exercice De L’Etat
Denis Podalydès, La Conquête
Omar Sy, Intouchables
Philippe Torreton, Présumé Coupable

Supporting Actress
Zabou Breitman, L’Eexercice De L’Etat
Anne Le Ny, Intouchables
Noémie Lvovsky, L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close
Carmen Maura, Les Femmes Du 6e Etage
Karole Rocher, Polisse

Supporting Actor
Michel Blanc, L’Exercice De L’Etat
Nicolas Duvauchelle, Polisse
Joeystarr, Polisse
Bernard Le Coq, La Conquête
Frédéric Pierrot, Polisse

Original Screenplay
Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm – La Guerre Est Déclarée
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Maïwenn, Emmanuelle Bercot – Polisse
Pierre Schoeller – L’Exercice De L’Etat
Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache – Intouchables

Adapted Screenplay
David Foenkinos – La Délicatesse
Vincent Garenq – Présumé Coupable
Olivier Gorce, Roschdy Zem, Rachid Bouchareb, Olivier Lorelle – Omar M’a Tuer
Mathieu Kassovitz, Pierre Geller, Benoît Jaubert – L’Ordre Et La Morale
Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski – Carnage

Newcomer (Female)
Naidra Ayadi, Polisse
Adèle Haenel, L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close
Clotilde Hesme, Angèle Et Tony
Céline Sallette, L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close
Christa Théret, La Brindille

A small sampling of new actors that are exciting France. Will we see them in arthouses soon?

Newcomer (Male)
Nicolas Bridet, Tu Seras Mon Fils
Grégory Gadebois, Angèle Et Tony
Guillaume Gouix, Jimmy Rivière
Pierre Niney, J’Aime Regarder Les Filles
Dimitri Storoge, Les Lyonnais

Original Score
Alex Beaupain – Les Bien-Aimés
Bertrand Bonello – L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close
Ludovic Bource – The Artist
-M-, Patrice Renson – Un Monstre A Paris
Philippe Schoeller – L’Exercice De L’Etat

Sound
Pascal Armant, Jean Goudier, Jean-Paul Hurier – Intouchables
Jean-Pierre Duret, Nicolas Moreau, Jean-Pierre Laforce – L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close
Olivier Hespel, Julie Brenta, Jean-Pierre Laforce – L’Exercice De L’Etat
Nicolas Provost, Rym Debbarh-Mounir, Emmanuel Croset – Polisse
André Rigaut, Sébastien Savine, Laurent Gabiot – La Guerre Est Déclarée

Cinematography
Pierre Aïm – Polisse
Josée Deshaies – L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close
Julien Hirsch – L’Exercice De L’Etat
Guillaume Schiffman – The Artist
Mathieu Vadepied – Intouchables

Editing
Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Laurence Briaud – L’Exercice De L’Etat
Pauline Gaillard – La Guerre Est Déclarée
Laure Gardette, Yann Dedet – Polisse
Dorian Rigal Ansous – Intouchables

Costumes
Catherine Baba – My Little Princess
Mark Bridges – The Artist
Christian Gasc – Les Femmes Du 6e Etage
Viorica Petrovici – La Source Des Femmes
Anaïs Romand – L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close

Art Direction
Laurence Bennett – The Artist
Alain Guffroy – L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close
Pierre-François Limbosch – Les Femmes Du 6e Etage
Jean Marc Tran Tan Ba – L’Exercice De L’Etat
Wouter Zoon – Le Havre

Women on the Sixth Floor starring Carmen Maura!

First Film
17 Filles, directors: Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin
Angèle Et Tony, director: Alix Delaporte
Le Cochon De Gaza, director: Sylvain Estibal
La Délicatesse, directors: David Foenkinos, Stéphane Foenkinos
My Little Princess, director: Eva Ionesco

Foreign Film
Black Swan, director: Darren Aronofsky
The King’s Speech, director: Tom Hooper
Drive, director: Nicolas Winding Refn
The Kid With A Bicycle, directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Incendies, director: Denis Villeneuve
Melancholia, director: Lars Von Trier
A Separation, director: Asghar Farhadi

Animated Film
Le Chat Du Rabbin, directors: Joann Sfar, Antoine Delesvaux
Le Cirque, director: Nicolas Brault
La Queue De La Souris, director: Benjamin Renner
Le Tableau, director: Jean-François Laguionie
Un Monstre A Paris, director: Bibo Bergeron

Documentary
Le Bal Des Menteurs, director: Daniel Leconte
Crazy Horse, director: Frederick Wiseman
Ici On Noie Les Algériens, director: Yasmina Adi
Michel Petrucciani, director: Michael Radford
Tous Au Larzac, director: Christian Rouaud

Short Film
L’Accordeur, directpr: Olivier Treiner
La France Qui Se Lève Tôt, director: Hugo Chesnard
J’Aurais Pu Etre Une Pute, director: Baya Kasmi
Je Pourrais Etre Votre Grand-Mère, director: Bernard Tanguy
Un Monde Sans Femmes, director: Guillaume Brac

Comments

[cal roth]

off topic: Eiko Ishioka died, did you see the news?

[//3|RT]

I sent him an email about it.

Has Midnight in Paris open in France?

[Buttercup]

Damn even with 7 slots for best actor they still snubbed Jérémie Elkaïm... I thought he was equally good as Donzelli. I'm glad they placed Bejo in lead even if she is not strong enough to be nominated.

[John]

Random comment, but Pierre Niney looks just like Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Rec (Ben Schwartz ?)! Or maybe its just this picture.

[Peggy Sue]

I'm not so sure "The Artist" will sweep. "Amélie" only won 4 over 13 nominations, also "La vie en rose" and "Le scaphandre et le papillon" both lost best picture in 2008. It seems they're into spreading the wealth which is kind of cool.

PS Maura is mesmerizing! If she wins, I'll be so happy.

[goran]

Okay, I'm not sure that every category needs 27 nominations.

That said, it's great to see Polisse pick up so many. It was one of the most compelling films I saw all year, but I'm yet to read a positive English-language review of it

It's very much an ensemble piece so I'm surprised to see Viard in the lead category, though she was indeed excellent.

[Mark]

Saw L’Apollonide, Souvenirs De La Maison Close last night and thought it was pretty good and very sad with flashes of brilliance. The ending was amazing though.

So sad to hear about Eiko Ishioka.