"An Officer and a Spy" and "Les Miserables" battle it out for the César

by Nathaniel R

France's Oscar parallel competition, the Césars, have finally announced their nominations for the film year. Roman Polanski's adaptation of Robert Harris's novel An Officer and a Spy leads the nominations. It's based on the Dreyfus affair and Emile Zola's "J'Accuse!" letter, both of which are also the topic of one of Oscar's earliest Best Picture winners The Life of Emile Zola (1937).  The drama leads the Césars with 12 nominations while the Oscar-nominated Les Miserables and the riveting queer romantic drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire were right behind with 10 nominations each. After the jump all the nominations and a few notes...

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Belated César Winners List

Eeek! During Oscar madness we totally forgot about the Gallic Oscars cross the Ocean. How rude of us! For completism's sake here is the list of winners in case you also missed the news.

BEST PICTURE

• Memoir of War, dir: Emmanuel Finkiel
• The Trouble With You, dir: Pierre Salvadori
• The Sisters Brothers, dir: Jacques Audiard
• Sink or Swim, dir: Gilles Lellouche 
• Guy, dir: Alex  Lutz
• ★ Custody, dir: Xavier Legrand
• In Safe Hands, dir: Jeanne Henry

Custody's four wins reminds us that it's still so weird that France didn't push it as their Oscar prospect last season. The other big winner was Shéhérazade about young lovers on the mean streets of Marseille which was not nominated for best picture but won each of its three nominations. Sink or Swim, the nomination leader and dadbod comedy, which opened too late to be France's Oscar submission last year, only took home one prize. Supporting Actor...

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"Custody" and "Sink or Swim" Lead the César Nods

by Nathaniel R

"Sink or Swim" leads the César nominations

Apologies that we're late in sharing the news of the César nominations! They arrive so hotly on the heels of the Oscar nominations that it's easy to miss them in the golden rush. This year, Custody (the critically beloved movie that France passed over for Oscar submission this year) and Sink or Swim lead the nominations with ten each but the English language western The Sisters Brothers, from reknowned French auteur Jacques Audiard is close behind with 9. It flopped hard in US theaters but it's reception in France is apparently much rosier. Famous people nominated include Isabelle Adjani, Adele Haenel, Audrey Tatou, and Johnny Depp offspring Lily Rose-Depp but fans of French cinema will recognize a lot more of the names than just those.

Nominations and commentary follow...

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"BPM" takes the César

by Nathaniel R

Nahuel Perez Biscayart (pictured in BPM and AU REVOIR LA HAUT) can't get out sick beds!

So much awardage being crammed in before the Oscars. In addition to the Spirits, the French César Awards were just held where, as expected, BPM took six trophies including Best Film and Best Male Newcomer for its terrific leading man, the Argentine born actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart. BPM apparently had tough competition, though, from Albert Dupontel's Au revoir Là-Haut (the English title will maybe be See You Up There) which also stars Biscayart! He's having quite a year...

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"BPM" Leads César Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The stars of BPM (Arnaud Valois, Adele Haenel, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) were all nominated for Césars

The César Awards, now in their 43rd year, and essentially France's Oscars have announced their nominations. It wasn't a great year for France in terms of their US arthouse performances. The most successful French release this past year in the States was François Ozon's Frantz (César eligible in 2016) which finished its theatrical run just shy of a million dollars. But of the French films that did make some sort of transatlantic mark this year (whether through festival hype or theatrical release) you'll see BPM (Beats Per Minute), the horror film Raw, and Agnes Varda's Oscar nominated Faces Places among their nominees...

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