César Noms: Mustang, Marguerite, Melanie, and More...
Wednesday, January 27, 2016 at 10:00AM
NATHANIEL R in César Awards, Dheepan, Francophile, Karin Viard, Marguerite, Maïwenn, Mon Roi, Mustang, My Golden Days, Standing Tall, Valley of Love, Vincent Lindon

Kristen Stewart's César win last year for Clouds of Sils Maria was historicThis year's César nominations (i.e. The French Oscars) have been announced. Due to the oddities of release schedules statesides, especially when it comes to subtitled pictures, many of the French films we've been discussing as "best ofs" like Girlhood, Saint Laurent, and Clouds of Sils Maria were 2014 features in France and honored accordingly. The only real crossovers with our current awards season are Denis Gamze Erguven's Oscar nominated Mustang (now playing in very limited release in the States) which is all over their nominations and two of their "Foreign Film Nominees" Hungary's Son of Saul and Italy's Youth which will compete with last year's US Best Picture winner Birdman.

Their nominations were led by the prestige vehicle Marguerite (which is "loosely based" on the story of Florence Foster Jenkins who is getting her own American biopic starring Meryl Streep this year) and Arnaud Desplechin's My Golden Days which are both expected to receive US theatrical releases in 2016. (If you see a link, it goes to our review of the picture, or past articles about the actor or director)

BEST FILM 

Let's discuss their nominations and various beautiful Frenchies after the jump. 

Dheepan, The Measure of a Man, and Marguerite were the finalists that lost out to Mustang to be France's Oscar submission this year. Unless France gets really patriotic (Mustang is very Turkish after all in both setting and language) one assumes that will continue at the Césars. France has a fairly steady film industry so it's much to early to know what they might consider for Oscar submissions in 2016 but of these Best Film nominees there are only two that could qualify for next season which are Fatima and Mon Roi, which were both released after the cut-off date for the current Oscars. Mon Roi, must have had a delayed release back home because you'll recall it netted a Best Actress prize at Cannes 2015 which Emmanuelle Bercot shared with Rooney Mara in Carol. 

BEST DIRECTOR

For reasons I can't quite fathom the César's expanded their lead acting and picture and director categories a few years back making them look rather easy to land now. I pray to the cinematic gods nightly that this doesn't happen to the Oscars but more and more awards shows are doing it this way diluting their honors. It's noteworthy that the awards that do it never think to expand the less famous categories though there are more supporting actors in each year's cinemas than their are acting leads, and just as many below the line triumphs too. Despite going 7 wide in both Picture and Director these categories are an exact match (well, except the tie in Best Picture resulting in one extra nomination for Fatima which did not have a corresponding director nomination though Phillipe Faucon was nominated elsewhere).

Diversity Wonder: Three female directors of seven and one of them is also nominated for Best Actress... for a different film altogether! 

BEST ACTRESS 

Catherine Deneuve plays a judge dealing with a juvenile delinquent in "Standing Tall"

Bercot's Cannes win makes her one to watch here but you never know with the Césars. Deneuve and Huppert both haven't won Césars since the 1990s (Indochine & La Cérémonie respectively) but they're frequently nominated. Their pictures usually get US releases (albeit only on the coasts unless they prove popular) since they have loyal albeit aged US fanbases. And, true to form, both Valley of Love and Standing Tall have small US distributors signed on. Who knows when we might see them though.

BEST ACTOR 

French cinema mainstay Vincent Lindon has yet to win the César

Vincent Lindon, probably best known stateside for Friday (2002) and La Moustache (2005) won Cannes for Best Actor so I'd expect him to repeat on his sixth César nomination since he's never won. 

BEST FOREIGN FILM 

Europe was way more into "Youth" than America was

France's foreign film category is not "Foreign Language Film" which is why you see two French Language entries from Belgium in play. Canadian Xavier Dolan won this award last year for Mommy, also French language. 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

SK1, which I had never heard of, is apparently about "France's first serial killer" so yes that genre will not die anywhere. (sigh)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

21 nights with Pattie

Have I ever told you I love Karin Viard? At least what little I've seen of her Stateside.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 

This is apparently the Best Sexy French Man category since Garrel, Magimel, and Rottiers (pictured above) are all in the mix. 

BEST NEW ACTRESS 

 

Karidje Toure who was so marvelous leading Girlhood lost this category last year! 

BEST NEW ACTOR

We love seeing "New" Actor/Actress categories for foreign country awards because then we can wonder if we will ever see the people mentioned or ever come to either love them or wonder what the fuss was about. Showbiz careers can be so flash in the pan. But maybe a new star we'll all love in 10 years or so is in the mix here somewhere in these two categories? 

BEST DOCUMENTARY 

Cyril Dion & Melanie Laurent promoting their doc

The Guzman nomination here is for The Pearl Button. And if you're like "Melanie Laurent made a documentary!?" then the answer is apparently yes. Her Tomorrow documentary is about possible solutions for climate change.

BEST FIRST FILM 

SK1 is about an infamous serial killer

BEST COSTUMES 

Léa Seydoux stars in "Diary of a Chambermaid"

BEST SET DECORATION 

Marguerite sings

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

French legends Depardieu & Huppert headline "Valley of Love"

Momenceau's made her feature debut as a cinematographer with Dheepan. You've probably seen Offenstein's images before. He also lensed international buzz titles Where Do We Go Now? (2011) and Tell No One (2006). Two female nominees here... how long til Oscar notices a female cinematographer? They're so rare on American pictures. 

BEST EDITING 

Oscar nominee alert! Juliette Welfling was nominated for Best Editor for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

BEST SOUND 

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC 

Oscar nominee alert. Ennio Morricone scored more than just The Hateful Eight this past year. He also provided the music for the WW II drama Come What May

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE 


None of these films were on the eligibility list for this year's Animated Feature Oscar but there's sometimes a lag in that category. Case in point: The Little Prince and April and the Extraordinary World (title change for America I guess) are both due in US theaters in March. The latter is from GKids with Marion Cotillard providing the lead vocals. It's a WW II adventure about a teenage girl whose scientist parents disappear mysteriously. 

BEST ANIMATED SHORT 

BEST SHORT FILM 

Finis!

Have you seen any of these pictures? If not what's the last French language film you saw in the cinemas? 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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