The Film Experience

Busy awards weekend, huh? The Spirit Awards commence this evening (Murtada will graciously live blog so yours truly can reserve last fumes of energy for Oscar night) but France's own Oscars, the Césars were already held. (We discussed their nominations earlier right here.)

<-- The glorious Juliette Binoche graced the poster for the big event and also presented best picture. Michael Douglas was the honorary winner (they love their Hollywood stars at the Césars in that particular way).

It turned out to be quite a Ladies Night as three films about women battled it out for supremacy: Fatima, an immigrant drama was the surprise Best Picture winner; Marguerite an operatic musical/comedy (based on the same story as Meryl Streep's forthcoming Florence Foster Jenkins) was the nomination leader and won multiple tech trophies and Best Actress; and, finally, the great Mustang (France's Turkish-language Oscar nominee and on my top ten list) took Screenplay, First Film and Editing prizes

The full list of winners and ceremony photos are after this amazing picture of 3 giants of French cinema: Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, and Emmanuel Béart

Marguerite warbling...
Fatima took top honors

Best Picture: Fatima by Philippe Faucon

Best Director: Arnaud Desplechin for My Golden Years

Best Actor: Vincent Lindon for La Loi du marché

Best Actress: Catherine Frot for Marguerite

Rob Paradot and Benoît Magimel both won prizes for "Standing Tall" as a troubled youth and his counsellorBest Male Newcomer Rob Paradot

Best Supporting Actor: Benoît Magimel for La Tête Haute

Best Supporting Actress: Sidse Babette Knudsen for L’Hermine

Breakthrough Actor: Rob Paradot in La Tête Haute

Breakthrough Actress: Zita Hanrot in Fatima

Fatima's actresses celebrating their win
Can Mustang spoil Son of Saul's presumed win at the Oscars?

Best Screenplay: Alice Winocour for Mustang

Best Foreign Film: Birdman by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Best First Film: Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Best Adaptation: Fatima by Philippe Faucon

Best Short Film: La Contre-allée by Cécile Ducrocq

The Little Prince is sure taking its sweet time getting to American movie theaters

Best Animated Feature Film: The Little Prince by Mark Osborne

Best Animated Short Film: Le Repas dominical by Céline Devaux

Best Original Score: Warren Ellis for Mustang

Best Costume Design: Pierre-Jean Laroque for Marguerite

Best Cinematography: Christophe Offenstein for Valley of Love by Guillaume Nicloux

Best Editing: Mathilde Van de Moortel for Mustang

Best Documentary: Demain by Cyril Dion & Mélanie Laurent

Best Sound: François Musy and Gabriel Hafner for Marguerite

Best Set Decoration: Martin Kurel for Marguerite

Karija Toure (GIRLHOOD) posing for a selfie with singer Louane Emera
And finally MICHAEL DOUGLAS winning his Lifetime Achievement Prize