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César Awards Set To Celebrate Big Year For French Movies

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday February 24, 2012 @ 11:29am PSTTags: Poliss, The Artist

‘The Artist’, ‘Poliss’ Lead Cesar Nominations

Tonight, the French film industry converges at Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet to celebrate what was a banner year for French film. Along with Oscar darling The Artist, the French will fête a year in which the local box office hit an all-time high (about $1.7 billion), with 67.5% of the population buying a cinema ticket. The two biggest grossers of 2011 were home-grown pics: Gaumont’s Untouchable directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (now third on the all-time gross list behind Titanic and Welcome To The Sticks and acquired by the Weintseins for the U.S. along with remake rights), and Pathé’s Nothing To Declare, starring and directed by Dany Boon, who was also behind 2008’s Sticks. Nothing To Declare is a straight comedy and as such has no nominations tonight — the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma does not typically like rewarding broad fare or films that rock the box office. Untouchable, however, has several nods including Best Picture, Director(s) and acting mentions for its two leads.

The actual César ceremony, a sometime stilted affair, is on its way to improving — they’ve recently learned the wonders of dimming the lights in the theater — and this evening portends better than most. Meanwhile, Cannes Film Festival general delegate and artistic director Thierry Frémaux has to be feeling pretty good right about now since many of the films rolling through awards season started their careers on the Croisette back in May. Not only does Cannes competition pic and Oscar favorite The Artist have 10 nominations this evening, director Maïwenn’s Poliss, with 13 mentions the most-nominated, was also on the 2011 Cannes roster as was House Of Tolerance (eight nods), while Un Certain Regard title L’Exercise De L’Etat has 11 nominations. Six-time nominee Declaration Of War was a Critics Week selection.

Kate Winslet will be on hand to accept an honorary César from Roman Polanski before the official party starts on the Champs Elysées. Regardless of how they fare this evening, however, the currently highest-profile names won’t be sticking around too long after the ceremony: Artist director Michel Hazanavicius and stars Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, along with the rest of the team, are understood to be high-tailing it to LA in order get to Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards and Sunday’s Oscars. I’ll be reporting on the major winners later today.

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‘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 »

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CANNES AWARDS SHOCKER: Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree Of Life’ Wins Palme d’Or

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday May 22, 2011 @ 10:33am PDTTags: Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Jean Dujardin, Kirsten Dunst, Nicolas Winding Refn, Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, Palme d'Or, Poliss, Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Pete Hammond

Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life has won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which just handed out its awards. The reclusive director did not attend the ceremony, and the award was picked up by producers Bill Pohlad … Read More »

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CANNES: Sundance Selects Acquires Competition Pic ‘Poliss’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Saturday May 21, 2011 @ 8:50am PDTTags: Cannes, Poliss, Sundance Selects
Mike Fleming

Cannes, FRANCE (May 21, 2011) – Sundance Selects announced today from the 2011 Cannes Film Festival that the company is acquiring all U.S. rights to writer-director and actress Maiwenn’s POLISS from Wild Bunch. The film, which made its world premiere in Competition at this week’s festival, was produced by Alain Attal and co-written by actress Emmanuelle Bercot, who also co-stars in the film. The film also stars Karin Viard, Joeystarr, Marina Fois, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Karole Rocher, Frederic Pierrot, Arnaud Henriet, Naidra Ayadi and Jérémie Elkhaim.

The film follows a group of individuals and officers working in and around a child protection unit in Paris.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects, said: “With POLISS, Maiwenn has given the Cannes Film Festival a jolt of electricity with an unforgettable ensemble cast. We think her incredibly cinematic story will really connect with American audiences.”

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Productions, and Betsy Rodgers, Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for Sundance Selects with Wild Bunch on behalf of the filmmakers.

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