You are viewing the archive: “César Awards”

César Awards: ‘Amour’ Sweeps Major Categories, ‘Argo’ Named Best Foreign Film

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday February 22, 2013 @ 2:59pm PSTTags: Amour, César Awards

Oscar-nominated Amour filmmaker Michael Haneke has won two Cannes Palmes d’Or and yet never taken home a César Award. Tonight, that was rectified in spades when Amour took the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Original Screenplay Césars at Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet. Jacques Audiard’s Rust & Bone was also a big winner at France’s equivalent to the Oscars with four prizes including Adapted Screenplay. Shut out was Noémie Lvovsky’s Camille Redouble which was the most-nominated film by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma coming into the party. Ben Affleck’s Argo was named Best Foreign Film.

Amour producer Margaret Menegoz first accepted the Original Screenplay prize for Haneke, who is expected in L.A. tomorrow, saying “Michael is enchanted, flattered and full of happiness that this academy that represents the most emotive of cinemas, has finally recognized him as one of their own.”

Emmanuelle Riva, who is up for a Best Actress Oscar on Sunday and the oldest woman ever to have that distinction, was in Paris to accept her César for Amour. Following a standing ovation, she said, “I worked on this film with great passion and I am very lucky at this hour or my life” to come across such a “wonder” of a subject that is “so close to all of us. This is the first time I have received a César and I thank everyone.” When she tried to pick up her César and walk offstage, she had to hand the trophy off, “It’s heavier than I am!” Riva’s partner in Amour, Jean-Louis Trintignant was not present for his win as Best Actor. But his son mounted the stage to accept the prize and promptly called his dad in Brussels where the actor was performing a play. From the speaker phone on his son’s cell, Trintignant said, “Thank you everyone who voted for me and those who didn’t vote for me because the others are good too. I’m a bit emotional, kisses to everyone.” READ MORE »

Comments (16)

César Award Nominations: ‘Camille Redouble’ Leads With 13, ‘Amour’ Scores 10

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday January 25, 2013 @ 1:10am PSTTags: Amour, César Awards

BREAKING…Refresh for latest: Nominations for the César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscar, were announced this morning in Paris and, much like last year, a surprise film beat out the perceived favorites to lead the pack. Multi-hyphenate Noémie Lvovsky scored 13 nominations this morning with Camille Redouble, outperforming Michael Haneke’s awards darling Amour. Last year, Poliss – interestingly, a film also directed by a woman – had 13 nominations to The Artist‘s ten. The Gaumont-backed Camille is a romantic comedy about a fortysomething mother of a 24-year-old girl who, on a boozy present-day New Year’s Eve, time travels back to high school circa 1985. This is Lvovsky’s fifth film as a director and here she’s nominated in that category along with Original Screenplay and Best Actress mentions. The film also has a further seven acting nods. Following Camille is the multi-Oscar-nominated Amour with ten nominations including Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor and Actress (for the Oscar-nommed Emmanuelle Riva). Also with ten nods is Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen which opened the Berlin Film Festival nearly a year ago. Other films turning up in several races include two Cannes titles: Jacques Audiard’s Rust & Bone and Leos Carax’s Holy Motors along with François Ozon’s In The House and Pathé’s box office hit What’s In A Name. Ben Affleck’s Argo also picked up a nod as Best Foreign Film. The César Awards will be handed out in Paris on February 22. The full list of nominees follows: Read More »

Comments (2)

Is ‘The Artist’ In Spirit Of An American Indie?

By BRIAN BROOKS | Saturday February 25, 2012 @ 12:42pm PSTTags: César Awards, Film Independent, Spirit Awards, The Artist

Do the Spirit Awards matter? They’re supposed to bring needed attention to American independent film – and they do. But the devil is in the details. The Artist just swept France’s top film awards, the Césars. But if the film wins the top … Read More »

Comments 26

‘The Artist’ Triumphs At France’s César Awards With Surprises In The Mix

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday February 24, 2012 @ 2:46pm PSTTags: César Awards, Kate Winslet, The Artist

UPDATED: The Artist was the big winner at the 37th César Awards tonight in Paris with prizes for best picture, director, cinematography, score, art direction and actress for Bérénice Bejo, who accepted her prize in one of the evening’s most moving moments. Best Actor Oscar-tipped Jean Dujardin, however, lost out to Untouchable‘s Omar Sy, who starred in the feel-good film that was 2011′s biggest hit in France and is now the third-biggest grosser of all time here.

I watched the ceremony at a viewing party thrown by Wild Bunch, the international sales company behind such winners and nominees as Artist, Poliss and Declaration Of War. Some of the industry-laden crowd were unsurprised by Sy’s win over Dujardin, saying they sensed that even the somewhat staid French Académie was reticent to let the tireless Sy go without recognition. The soirée was held in Wild Bunch’s movie theater-cum-lounge near the Pantheon with the sales teams, distributors and production folk who worked on their films plus other industry types – and filmmaker Gaspar Noe, too. The gathering had several horses in the various races but took it all in Gallic stride, cheering each other on, catcalling and yawning at the boring parts (and there were quite a few — the show tried to pull a Billy Crystal at the outset, inserting host Antoine de Caunes into the nominated films to a pretty muted reaction).

Among the other surprises of the night were a win in the best original screenplay category for L’Exercice De L’Etat‘s Pierre Schoeller, who beat out Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist as well as other favored nominees. Among the highlights was Honorary César winner Kate Winslet, who had been charming the local press in the past days saying it was so much better to receive an award she knew she was going to win. Roman Polanski had been expected to bestow the honor but it was her Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry who was on hand — after host de Caunes congratulated Winslet for being against plastic surgery via her “message”, which according to him is “Don’t fuck with Mother Nature.” In accepting, Winslet made a note to particularly thank her Carnage director Roman Polanski; she later accepted the adapted screenplay prize for Polanski for Carnage. With the kudos pretty well spread out, one attendee this evening told me it wasn’t such a big deal if The Artist didn’t win every prize at home: “It’s more imortant it wins at the Oscars. It’s good for the Césars to pull a rabbit out of the hat sometimes.” Following is a full list of the winners:

Best Picture
The Artist, producer: Thomas Langmann

Director
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist

Actress
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist

Actor
Omar Sy, Untouchable

Supporting Actress
Carmen Maura, Les Femmes Du 6e Etage

Supporting Actor
Michel Blanc, L’Exercice De L’Etat

Original Screenplay
Pierre Schoeller – L’Exercice De L’Etat

Adapted Screenplay
Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski – Carnage Read More »

Comments (5)

‘The Artist’ Nabs 10 César Nominations, But Maiwenn’s ‘Poliss’ Leads With 13 Nods

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 2:02am PSTTags: César Awards, Poliss, The Artist

Maïwenn’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Poliss leads the nominees for France’s César Awards with 13, including all the major categories and several acting nods for the ensemble. The Artist garnered 10 nominations including Best Film, Director, Actress, Actor, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Cinematography, Editing, Costumes and Art Direction. Gaumont’s box office smash Untouchable has nine including Best Film and Director for the duo of Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, with lead actors Omar Sy and François Cluzet competing against one another in what this year is an expanded category. (The acting, directing and film fields have all recently been widened to seven slots from five). Other films to score multiple nods include Bertrand Bonello’s House Of Tolerance and Pierre Schoeller’s L’Exercice De L’Etat. The latter film will compete for Best Film alongside The Artist, Valerie Donzelli’s Declaration Of War, Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre, Untouchable, Poliss and Alain Cavalier’s Pater. Best Foreign Film nods went to Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Tom Hooper’s Oscar winner The King’s Speech, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s The Kid With A Bicycle, Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies, Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation and Lars von Trier’s Melancholia. Roman Polanski will present Kate Winslet with an honorary César at this year’s ceremony on February 24 in Paris. The late Annie Girardot will also be honored with a tribute. The full list of nominees follows: Read More »

Comments (2)