Four out of six trophies were won by De Rouille et d’Os, co-produced in Belgium by Les Films du Fleuve. It won the César awards for best music (Alexandre Desplat), best editing (Juliette Welfling) and best adaptation (Thomas Bidegain and Jacques Audiard), but this fantastic melodrama was also the occasion for Matthias Schoenaerts to win the César for best male revelation, which everyone predicted he would.
It is a true recognition for an actor who has become an absolute star in Belgium, a star in France as well and is breaking through on the Anglo-Saxon market. On Sunday he will be in Los Angeles with Tom Van Avermaet, perhaps even to win the Oscar for best short film with Dood van een Schaduw.
CloClo, co-produced here by Nexus Factory, won the César for best sound, while Ernest et Célestine crushed their opponents in the “best animated film” category. Benjamin Renner and his Belgian colleagues Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar managed to charm close to 800,000 viewers in France, as much as the professionals voting in these awards.
It is yet another fine recognition for producer Vincent Tavier and our friends at Digital Graphics who worked on the film. The Ume brothers’ company was also involved in Dood van een Schaduw, so much like Matthias Schoenaerts they could get two birds between Paris and Hollywood this weekend.
Although Wallimage is not involved with this film, we would still like to note that Le Cri du Homard brought the award for best short film back to Belgium. Author Nicolas Guiot is the first to do that, and it should open doors to start on feature films.
Never before did Belgian films enthrall the French so much as in this blessed year 2013. Wallimage never did as well in Paris either. A great start of the year for the Walloon fund, proving once more that economic requirements and artistic quality can go side by side.
Let’s Celebrate!
