No more guesswork! The list of official nominations for French cinema’s next Césars has just been released. And there’s much to celebrate.
Great news: Lucas Belvaux has been nominated for Best Director, while Rapt will compete in the Best Film category. When you see the films selected, you realize that this year’s level is truly impressive! All the more reason to celebrate.
More eagerly awaited, Yvan Attal is of course also in the running for Best Actor against other actors at the top of their game: Vincent Lindon, debutant Tahar Rahim, who made his mark in Un prophète, and François Cluzet, nominated twice in the same category! And that’s not all: Rapt has been nominated for a fourth time. In the best supporting actress category, the delightful Anne Consigny will be up against the likes of Noémie Lvovsky and Emmanuelle Devos.
More good news: Le Petit Nicolas is also in the running, but not in the Best Film category. Laurent Tirard and Grégoire Vigneron are nominated for their screen adaptation of Goscinny and Sempé’s books. That’s something. We know that comedies are never popular at the Césars, and the absence of OSS 117 confirms this once again this year.
But the biggest surprise for Wallimage was of course the inclusion of Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar‘s Panique au village in the list of best foreign feature films. Firstly, because the film has not been seen much in France, but above all because the list of nominees is enough to leave the cinephile stunned. Panique will be pitted against James Cameron’s Avatar, Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, Gus Van Sant’s Harvey Milk, Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother), recently honored at the Lumières du Cinéma, Michael Haneke’s Le Ruban blanc (Palme d’Or at Cannes) and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, which won the Oscars last year. Amazing! Almost surreal… Panic has its chance…
Two other nationals of Belgium’s French-speaking community also feature on the lists: Pauline Étienne, already an award-winner at the Lumières, is nominated for Best Emerging Actress for Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront. And in the Best Supporting Actor category, we’re delighted to find Benoît Poelvoorde for his performance in Coco avant Chanel.
Suffice to say, we’ll be keeping a very close eye on the 35th César Awards Ceremony, which takes place on February 27 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The evening, broadcast live on Canal+ and on Be TV for Belgium, will start at 9pm with actress Marion Cotillard in the chair. Valérie Lemercier and Gad Elmaleh will be the masters of ceremony.
