After the nominees had been announced, four films retained most of the attention: Intouchables, the box office phenomenon, The Artist, a worldwide success story, Polisse, the tipsters’ favourite and L’Exercice de l’État, considered the outsider despite its eleven nominations.
The first welcome surprise of the evening was the César for an excellent Michel Blanc , for best male supporting actor, besting the three actors from Polisse. A little later it was Pierre Schoëller’s turn to mount on stage, to receive the prize for best original screenplay, a reward which certainly pleased him tremendously, considering how much time and effort he put into this phase of the work. The members of the technical group at Wallimage/Bruxellimage who have seen this text and the passionate intentional note accompanying it, are still all turned upside down by it 13 months later.
Even if Olivier Gourmet did not win his category, beaten by Omar Sy who gave away a memorable show on scene when picking up his award, there still was a third César reserved for L’Exercice de l’État: best sound for Olivier Hespel, Julie Brenta and Jean-Pierre Laforce.
Given the exceptional list of award winners for this 37th edition, the three awards won by this splendid film are certainly a real recognition. Only The Artist did better, winning six categories. Beautiful, indeed.
Finally, another reason to be proud: Le Cochon de Gaza, won for best first film and was co-produced by Saga Film, sound effects by Philippe Van Leer, mixed by Mathieu Cox at Dame Blanche Genval, one of the films from the Wallimage/Bruxellimage portfolio.
