"Anatomy of a Fall" wins big at the Césars

by Nathaniel R

the great Juliette Binoche announcing Best Actress at the César Awards on Feb 23, 2024 in Paris

This has not been an awards season full of surprises. The expected winners just keep on winning whether we're talking awards bodies in the US, UK, or France. The 49th annual César Awards took place Friday in Paris with the expected winner, Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall, taking home six prizes. The nomination leader, Thomas Cailley's mutant adventure The Animal Kingdom also won multiple prizes with five statues in total... all for craft awards.  As expected the stupidly maligned but brilliant Oscar submission The Taste of Things was shut out from any wins after a paltry nomination showing.

The winners of each category and a few comments after the jump... 

BEST FILM

• All Your Faces (9 nominations, 1 win)
• ★ Anatomy of a Fall (11 nominations, 6 wins)
• The Animal Kingdom (12 nominations, 5 wins)
• The Goldman Case (8 nominations, 1 win) 
• Junkyard Dog (7 nominations, 1 win)

Courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall is the big winner in the above the line categories while the sci-fi adventure The Animal Kingdom dominated in the craft categories.  

BEST DIRECTOR
(stats from all categories) 

• Jeanne Henry (6 nominations)  - All Your Faces
• ★ Justine Triet (5 nominations, first win) - Anatomy of a Fall
• Thomas Cailley (6 nominations, 1 win) - The Animal Kingdom
• Cédric Kahn (2 nominations) - The Goldman Case
• Catherine Breillat (2 nominations) - Last Summer

Justine Triet (Sybil, Age of Panic, Victoria) is a regular at the Césars and now she's finally a winner. 

BEST ACTRESS

• Marion Cotillard (8th nom, 2 wins) - Little Girl Blue
• Léa Drucker (2nd nom, 1 win) - Last Summer
• Virginie Efira (7th nom, 1 win) - Just the Two of Us
• Hafsia Herzi (2nd nom, 1 win) - The Rapture
• ★ Sandra Hüller (first nomination and win) - Anatomy of a Fall

It probably didn't sting too hard for these French actresses to see German movie star Sandra Hüller win -- they're all previous winners. 

BEST ACTOR

• Romain Duris (7th nom)  - The Animal Kingdom
• Benjamin Lavernhe (4th nom) - Abbé Pierre, A Century of Devotion
• Melvil Poupaud (5th nom)  - Just the Two of Us
• Raphaël Quenard (double-nominated this year) - Yannick
• ★ Arieh Worthalter (first nomination and first win)- The Goldman Case

One has to wonder at this point how long Romain Duris is going to have to wait before he becomes a César winner. He's been a headliner in French cinema for over 25 years.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Leïla Bekhti (5th nom) - All Your Faces
• Galatea Bellugi (2nd nom) - Junkyard Dog
• Élodie Bouchez (4th nom, 2 wins) - All Your Faces
• ★ Adèle Exarchopoulos (4th nom, 2nd win) - All Your Faces
• Miou-Miou (11th nom, 1 win) - All Your Faces

All Your Faces, a drama about victims and preperators of violent crime in a restorative justice group hogged 80% of the Supporting Actress category but the votes didn't split; Adèle Exarchopoulos won her second César for her role. Her first was for her breakthrough picture, the internationally successful lesbian drama Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013). 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Swann Arlaud in "Anatomy of a Fall"

• ★ Swann Arlaud (4th nom, 3rd win) - Anatomy of a Fall
• Anthony Bajon (3rd nom)  - Junkyard Dog
• Arthur Harari (first acting nomination)- The Goldman Case
• Pio Marmaï (6th nom) - Yannick
• Antoine Reinartz (2nd nom) - Anatomy of a Fall

Swann Arlaud is clearly a César favourite. He's won for 75% of his nominations.

MOST PROMISING ACTRESS

Ella Rumpf in "Marguerite's Theorem"

• Céleste Brunnquell (2nd nom in this category) - No Love Lost
• Kim Higelin (feature debut)  - Consent
• Suzanne Jouannet (second feature) - The Royal Way
• Rebecca Marder (lots of movies / 2nd consecutive nom in this category) - Grand Expectations
• ★ Ella Rumpf (several movies) - Marguerite's Theorem

You might remember Ella Rumpf for the cannibalism drama Raw (2016) which made small waves several years ago. Now she's a César winner. 

MOST PROMISING ACTOR

• Julien Frison (several movies, first nomination) - Marguerite's Theorem
• Paul Kircher (4th feature, 2nd consecutive nom in this category) - The Animal Kingdom
• Samuel Kircher (feature debut) - Last Summer
• Milo Machado Graner (3rd feature) - Anatomy of a Fall
•  ★ Raphaël Quenard (several movies, double-nominated this year, first win)- Junkyard Dog

This is the only acting category that Anatomy of a Fall lost. 15 year old Milo Machado Graner, the youngest  nominee here for his riveting performance as the blind son, lost to Quenard who had the advantage of two nominations and two popular films this season.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• All Your Faces
• ★ Anatomy of a Fall
• The Animal Kingdom
• The Goldman Cases
• Junkyard Dog

Anatomy of a Fall seems likely to win this category at the Oscars, too, given its awards run. It's won the screenplay prize at the Globes, the Gothams, the Kansas City Film Critics Awards, The London Critics Circle Awards, the European Film Awards, the New York Film Critics Online, Michigan Movie Critics Guild Awards,  the International Cinephile Society Awards, the Lumiere Awards, The Dublin Film Critics Awards, the North Dakota Film Society, the BAFTAs,  and now the Césars.

 BEST ADAPTATION

"Just the Two of Us" scores Virginie Efira a fourth consecutive Best Actress nomination

• Consent
• ★ Just the Two of Us
• Last Summer

Just the Two of Us, starring TFE favourite Virginie Efira, is a thriller about a toxic relationship.

BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM

• Bernadette
• ★ Junkyard Dog
• The Rapture
• Vermin
• Vincent Must Die

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Anatomy of a Fall
• ★ The Animal Kingdom
• The Goldman Cases
• The Taste of Things
• The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan / The Three Musketeers: Milady

BEST EDITING

• All Your Faces
• ★ Anatomy of a Fall
• The Animal Kingdom
• The Goldman Case
• Little Girl Blue

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• ★ The Animal Kingdom
• The Crime is Mine
• Jeanne Du Barry
• The Taste of Things
• The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan / The Three Musketeers: Milady

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

• Anatomy of a Fall
• The Animal Kingdom
• Jeanne Du Barry
• The Taste of Things
• ★  The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan / The Three Musketeers: Milady

BEST SOUND

• All Your Faces
• Anatomy of a Fall
• ★ The Animal Kingdom
• The Goldman Cases
• The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan / The Three Musketeers: Milady

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC

• ★ The Animal Kingdom
• Disco Boy
• Junkyard Dog
• Just the Two of Us
• The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan / The Three Musketeers: Milady

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• Acid
• ★ The Animal Kingom
• The Mountain
• The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan / The Three Musketeers: Milady
• Vermin

BEST FOREIGN FILM

• Fallen Leaves (Finland)
• Kidnapped (Italy)
• ★ The Nature of Love (Canada)
• Oppenheimer (US/UK)
• Perfect Days (Japan)

In something of a surprise the lowest profile contender (internationally speaking) won the prize. It's worth noting that it's the only one of these pictures that's in the native language of César voters. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

• Atlantic Bar
• ★ Four Daughters
• Little Girl Blue
• Our Body
• On the Adamant

Four Daughters is only the fifth film to be nominated for both the César and the Oscar in their parallel doc feature categories. None of these double-dippers have ever won the Oscar but this is the third to win* the César. The other double-dippers were The Salt of the Earth*, Fire At Sea, I Am Not Your Negro*, and Faces Places.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• L'Acteur, ou la surprenante vertu de l'incompréhension
• L'Effect de mis rides
• ★ La méchanique des fluides

The winning short is about a suicide letter posted to Reddit and the search for answers on the internet.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

• ★ Chicken for Linda!
• Mars Express
• No Dogs or Italians Allowed

Chicken for Linda is a comedy about a mom who can't cook making dinner for her daughter. It lost the European Film Award in this category to the delightful Oscar nominated Robot Dreams but it triumphed at home. It was not submitted in Oscar's animated category this season. 

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

• Drôles d'oiseaux
• ★ Été 96
• La forêt de mademoiselle Tang

The winner is a short about a family having their annual picnic on an island when they get trapped by the tide.

BEST SHORT

• ★ L'Attente
• Bolero
• Rapide
• Les Silencieux

The winner is a lesbian-themed romantic comedy  about a couple having their first child. 

HONORARY CÉSAR

• ★  Agnes Jaoui
• ★  Christopher Nolan

Interestingly enough Oppenheimer didn't win the "Foreign Film" prize even though Christopher Nolan was being honored with the Honorary. We like it when awards bodies spread the wealth so this isn't a complaint. 

Comments

[cal roth]

I need to take a side here. The Taste of Things is a ZILLION times better than Anatomy of a Fall. It's a miracle of a film, and Binoche is nothing short of amazing. To be frank, it's one of the best films of this century. IT should have taken the Golden Palm, E A S I L Y, but I'd trade that for a second Cannes Best Actress prize to Binoche. One more time, she shows that she needs almost no screenplay to deliver a fully fleshed three-dimensional person on screen, and still be moving, striking, arresting. Her performance brought me the kind of joy that I did;'t feel since her own turn in The Red Balloon. I don't want to attack Anatomy, which has its own merits, but The Taste of Things is ART. History will bring justice to Tran.

(Sorry for the rant, but I am absolutely IN LOVE with this film)

[thevoid99]

I'm happy Christopher Nolan got a Cesar.

[Peggy Sue]

Antoine Reinartz won for 120 BPM. He would have made my Oscar ballot for his sassy prosecutor.

Quenard is very good in Yannick. He's going to be huge in France.

Duris, Poupaud, Ozon, Lambert Wilson, the list of guys who have never won is quite impressive. And Binoche has only ONE.

[trados]

it's a pity you did not write for the victory of Society of the Snow in the Spanish Goya Awards