Wallimage goes straight for the César.

  • 25.01.2010

Goodbye speculations, the list with official nominations for the upcoming Césars of French cinema is here! And there is reason to be happy.

Big news: Lucas Belvaux is nominated as best director, while Rapt will compete in the category Best Film. Taking a look at the selected films, we see that the competition is impressive this year! One more reason to be proud.

This was more expected, and Yvan Attal is of course in the running for Best Actor against several comedians at the top of their art: Vincent Lindon, first timer Tahar Rahim who made an impression in Un Prophète and François Cluzet who received not one but two nominations in the same category! That is not the end of it: Rapt has a fourth nomination. The beautiful Anne Consigny will fight for the title of Best Supporting Actress with among others Noémie Lvovsky and Emmanuelle Devos.

More good news: Le Petit Nicolas is there too, but not for Best Film. Laurent Tirard and Grégoire Vigneron are nominated for their adaptation of Goscinny and Sempé’s work into a scenario. That’s at least something. We know that comedies don’t score very well at the Césars, and the fact OSS 117 is completely absent only confirms this.

The best surprise for Wallimage however, was seeing Panique au Village by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar on the list for Best Foreign Film. First because the film wasn’t seen very much in France, but also because of the other nominees, whose titles are enough to leave the average cinema lover speechless. Panique will compete with Avatar by James Cameron, Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood, Harvey Milk by Gus Van Sant, J’ai tué ma mère by Xavier Dolan, recently awarded at the Lumières du Cinéma, Das Weisse Band by Michael Haneke (Golden Palm at Cannes) and Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle who rocked the Oscars last year. Hallucinating! It’s almost surreal … so Panique stands a chance…

Two other members of the Belgian French Community are on the lists for the Césars: Pauline Étienne, who already won at the Lumières is nominated as Best Upcoming Actress for Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront. And in the category Best Supporting Actor we are pleased to see Benoît Poelvoorde for his work in Coco avant Chanel

Well, it goes without saying who will be following the 35th Cérémonie des Césars du cinéma with much attention, on Friday 25 February, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The evening will be broadcast on Canal+ and probably Be TV for Belgium, and starts at 9 PM with as president actress Marion Cotillard. Valérie Lemercier and Gad Elmaleh act as masters of ceremony for the evening.