"BPM" Leads César Nominations
Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 1:00PM by Nathaniel R
The stars of BPM (Arnaud Valois, Adele Haenel, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) were all nominated for Césars
The César Awards, now in their 43rd year, and essentially France's Oscars have announced their nominations. It wasn't a great year for France in terms of their US arthouse performances. The most successful French release this past year in the States was François Ozon's Frantz (César eligible in 2016) which finished its theatrical run just shy of a million dollars. But of the French films that did make some sort of transatlantic mark this year (whether through festival hype or theatrical release) you'll see BPM (Beats Per Minute), the horror film Raw, and Agnes Varda's Oscar nominated Faces Places among their nominees...
Two of the most nominated films, a drama called See You Up There (original title Au revoir là-haut) and a comedy C'est La Vie (original title Le sens de la fête) could be films to watch for next year's Oscar submission competition since they opened in France in October (foreign language submissions require opening between October 1st and September 30th in your country of origin). See You Up There is a World War I drama (set in 1918) starring Nahuel Perez Biscayart (BPM's leading man) and the writer/director/actor Albert Dupontel. C'est La Vie is a wedding comedy. Other films you haven't heard of yet you might since French cinema has so many delicious stars.
43rd CESAR NOMINATIONS
Links go to reviews of coverage here if applicable
Film
BPM, dir: Robin Campillo
See You Up There, dir: Albert Dupontel
Barbara, dir: Mathieu Amalric
Le Brio, dir: Yvan Attal
Patients, dirs: Grand Corps Malade, Mehdi Idir
Petit Paysan, dir: Hubert Charuel
C'est La Vie, dirs: Eric Tolédano, Olivier Nakache
Two of these, a drama called See You Up There (original title Au revoir là-haut) and a comedy C'est La Vie (original title Le sens de la fête) could be films to watch for next year's Oscar submission competition since they opened in France in October (foreign language submissions require opening between October 1st and September 30th in your country of origin). See You Up There is a World War I drama (set in 1918) starring Nahuel Perez Biscayart (BPM's leading man) and the writer/director/actor Albert Dupontel. C'est La Vie is a wedding comedy. Other films you haven't heard of yet you might since French cinema has so many delicious stars.
Director
Robin Campillo, BPM
Albert Dupontel, See You Up There
Mathieu Amalric, Barbara
Julia Ducournau, Raw
Hubert Charuel, Petit Paysan
Michel Hazanavicius, Le Redoutable
Eric Tolédano & Olivier Nakache, C'est La Vie
Yvan Attal got a Best Film nomination for Le Brio but he was booted from the Director race for Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius's (The Artist) and the Godard bio Le Redoutable. Yvan Attal is Charlotte Gainsbourg's longtime partner (they've never married) and a writer/director/actor.
Actress
Juliette Binoche, Let the Sun Shine In
Jeanne Balibar, Barbara
Emmanuelle Devos, Numéro Une
Marina Foïs, L’Atelier
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Promise at Dawn
Karin Viard, Jalouse
Doria Tillier, Monsieur Et Madame Adelman
Uff. So much talent. Devos & Viard (pictured), Binoche! Etcetera...
Actor
Swan Arlaud, Petit Paysan
Daniel Auteuil, Le Brio
Jean-Pierre Bacri, C'est La Vie
Guillaume Canet, Rock’n Roll
Albert Dupontel, See You Up There
Louis Garrel, Le Redoutable
Reda Kateb, Django
Guillaume Canet is nominated for his Rock'n Roll farce but his significant other and co-star Marion Cotillard wasn't. Interesting.
Newcomer (Female)
Iris Bry, The Guardians
Laetitia Dosch, Jeune Femme
Eye Haïdara, C'est La Vie
Camélia Jordana, Le Brio
Garance Marillier, Raw
Finnegan Oldfield stars in "Marvin" with Isabelle Huppert as herself!
Newcomer (Male)
Benjamin Lavernhe, C'est La Vie
Finnegan Oldfield, Marvin Ou La Belle Education
Pablo Pauly, Patients
Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, BPM
Arnaud Valois, BPM
It's hard to play pundit for another country's prizes -- you dont know the narrative or the overall reception but Biscayart seems likely from afar. But I'm here for this Marvin film (which I think will be going by Reinventing Marvin if it travels to other countries) whenever I get a chance to see it. It's about a boy who struggles with his family and becomes an actor. Isabelle Huppert plays herself !!!
Supporting Actor
Niels Arestrup, See You Up There
Laurent Lafitte, See You Up There
Gilles Lellouche, C'est La Vie
Vincent Macaigne, C'est La Vie
Antoine Reinartz, BPM
Sara Giraudeau in Petit Paysan about a cow farm in trouble
Supporting Actress
Laure Calamy, Ava
Anaïs Demoustier, La Villa
Sara Giraudeau, Petit Paysan
Adèle Haenel, BPM
Mélanie Thierry, See You Up There
Set Decoration
BPM
Au Revoir Là-Haut
Barbara
Promise at Dawn
Le Redoubtable
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Pierre Niney star in the period drama "Promise at Dawn"
Costume Design
BPM
See You Up There
Barbara
The Guardians
Promise at Dawn
LE FUTUR SERA CHAUVE / THE BALD FUTURE trailer from Paul Cabon on Vimeo.
Animated Short Film
Le Future Sera Chauve, dir: Paul Cabon
I Want Pluto To Be A Planet Again, dirs: Marie Amachoukeli, Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka
Le Jardin De Minuit, dir: Benoît Chieux
Pépé Le Morse, dir: Lucrèce Andreae
Animated Film
The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, dirs: Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert
Sahara, dir: Pierre Coré
Zombillénium, dirs: Arthur De Pins, Alexis Ducord
Cinematography
BPM
See You Up There
Barbara
The Guardians
Le Redoubtable
Adapted Screenplay
See You Up There
The Guardians
Patients
Promise at Dawn
Le Redoutable
nice to see the great BPM honored across the board
Editing
BPM
See You Up There
Barbara
Petit Paysan
C'est La Vie
Sound
BPM
See You Up There
Barbara
Raw
C'est La Vie
Short Film
Les Bigorneaux
Le Bleu Blanc Rouge De Mes Cheveux
Debout Kinshasa!
Marlon
Les Misérables
does this mean i finally have to watch RAW? So frightened of it!
Debut Feature
Raw, dir: Julia Ducournau
Jeune Femme, dir: Léonor Serraille
Monsieur & Madame Adelman, dir: Nicolas Bedos
Patients, dirs: Grand Corps Malade, Mehdi Idir
Petit Paysan, dir: Hubert Charuel
Documentary
12 Days, dir: Raymond Depardon
A Voix Haute – La Force De La Parole, dirs, Stéphane De Freitas, Ladj Ly
Carré 35, dir: Eric Caravaca
I Am Not Your Negro, dir: Raoul Peck
Faces Places, dirs: Agnès Varda, JR
Original Score
BPM
See You Up There
Raw
Petit Paysan
Faces Places
Original Screenplay
BPM
Barbara
Raw
Petit Paysan
C'est La Vie
Swedish Lebanese star Fares Fares headlines "The Nile Hilton Incident" which takes place in Egypt. it's up against much more high profile films for Foreign Film.
Foreign Film
The Nile Hilton Incident (Sweden/Denmark/Germany) dir: Tarik Saleh
Dunkirk (UK) dir: Christopher Nolan
The Royal Exchange (Belgium) dir: Marc Dugain
Loveless (Russia) dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev
La La Land (US) dir: Damien Chazelle
Noces (Belgium/Pakistan) dir: Stephan Streker
The Square (Sweden) dir: Ruben Ostlund
Release date eligibility always makes for great comedy. Isn't it bizarree to see Dunkirk (2017) up against La La Land (2016) and Loveless (which is about to open in the US in 2018)? I'm eager to see The Nile Hilton Incident primarily for Fares Fares. Love those reliable stars that pop up in movies from so many countries. He's great in Swedish movies but you also might have seen him in Zero Dark Thirty or Rogue One or Safe House or whatnot. He's in the premiere episode of the second season of Westworld, too, though who knows how small the role is.
Reader Comments (15)
Does being a new actor make you ineligible for the leading category?
SOOOOOO refreshing to see BPM get some recognition. It's probably my favorite film of last year so I was starting to feel alone in my adoration. (Which would be fitting since I was the ONLY one in my theater when I viewed it at Lincoln Center).
Also, Nathaniel, you MUST see Raw before closing out your year for the Film Bitch Awards! And, if you still haven't seen them, Ingrid Goes West and It Comes At Night!
Dunkirk!!! Yay!!! The French have great taste.
BPM is now on iTunes. Everyone watch!
Yeah I wish the stars of BPM were in the lead actor category too.
If Barbara is a bio of the singer, I'm looking most forward to that
I have not seen the movie yet but that Arnaud Valois is so lovely to look that. I just keep googling images of him.
And Penélope Cruz's getting the honorary César... I would've said it's a bit premature, since she's still young and hasn't really work in France much in ages, but a quick Google search reveals that they just like to award that to any big name star, really!
Raul: It does. It used not to, but they changed the rules a few years ago.
Barbara is not really a biopic. It is a movie about a director trying to make this biopic.
I am puzzled here. Why isn't Denis' masterpiece Let the Sunshine In leading the nominations? I love every single frame of it, every tiny bit of Binoche's performance, specially her face-off with a magnificent and hilarious Gerard Depardieu.
Raul:
Yes.
In the past many were nominated in more than one category.
In 2004 Julie Depardieu won Supporting Actress and Most Promising Actress for Little Lili and in 2010 Tahar Rahim won Best Actor and Most Promising Actor for A Prophet. Since then they changed the rules and you only can be nominated in one category.
The list of actors elegible for Promising Actor and Actress are release in november. So generally they vote based on that placement.
In this year i tought they would nominated Biscayart also in lead for See You Up There, but they didn't (although they nominated his co-star and director).
Also noteworthy is that Antoine Reinartz was nominated in supporting for BPM, but he was also elegible for Promising Actor (were he was expected over Oldfield). With means he probably get more vote in the major category.
Being french myself, i can tell you BPM is the film to beat ! The only sure thing is that it won't win both Picture AND Director because, one of the stupidest rules of the French Academy is that you can't win BOTH prizes... If the same picture gets the largest votes in both categories, they'll give the directing prize to the second on the list. That's why i'm pretty sure last year, Verhoven was number one on the directors list but they gave the prize to Xavier Dolan.
Anyway, i can understand the BIG love for BPM even if i'm not a fan myself (on the subject, everything coming in the shadow of Nichols' Angels in America is just 'nice' to me). But a BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN nomination, really ? WHY ? Does somebody have a clue ?
Not a fan of Valerian either but it's eligible at the Cesar Awards and it was shut out of the artistic categories
Salut Clément !
Totally agree: the VALERIAN snubs & that Film/Director split rule are ridiculous.
Another thing that bugs me is the creation of an "audience award" César, to award the biggest French hit of the year.
Hi, Clement
Is that rule (by which one film cannot win both film and director) new? Because «Un prophète» won both film and director in 2010... (Another film by Audiard, «De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté», also won both picture and director in 2006). The same happened with «The artist» in 2012, «Amour» in 2013 or «Timbuktu» in 2015...
bonobo: Clement will know better than me but my understanding is that it was a new rule either last year or the year before.
Agree re: Valerian: it was one of the most impressively designed and shot films of last year - I was hoping it would get Oscar nomination for Visual Effects but was much more optimistic it would get some César nods, and so its absence from the nominations was very disappointing!
Thanks, Edward! I just check it and it is certainly stated in the chapter II, article 7 of the Academy rules. It must be a very recent (and, in part, ridiculous) thing and I was not aware of that!