César Nominations: 'Lost Illusions' and 'Annette' score but 'Titane' struggles

by Nathaniel R

France's own Oscar-like ceremony the Césars will take place this year on February 25th and they've just released their list of nominations. In a mild surprise this past summer's Palme d'Or winner Titane did not do well in the nominations scoring in only 4 categories (Director, Female Newcomer, Cinematography, and Visual Effects). Instead the nominations were led by the costume drama Lost Illusions (15 nominations) which premiered at Venice. Other quick items of note: Canadian writer/director/actor Xavier Dolan, a perennial favourite at Cannes, picked up his first César nomination (Best Supporting Actor). Adam Driver also received an acting nomination for the musical Annette (it's very rare for US stars to be nominated there). Cate Blanchett will be receiving the Honorary César this year. 

The nominations and a few comments are after the jump. If we've written about the film, it's linked up, and since we love French cinema we've covered quite a few of these...

Best Film

• Lost Illusions
• Annette
• Aline
• Happening
• Bac Nord
• The Divide/ La Fracture
• Onoda, 10,000 Nights in the Jungle

You already know we're huge fans of Happening, the French abortion drama that's due for release in the US sometime this year. The Divide, about two middle aged lesbians on an emergency visit to the hospital, won the Queer Palm at Cannes but sadly it hasn't been picked up for US release. 

Best Director 

• Valérie Lemercier, Aline
• Leos Carax, Annette
• Cédric Jiminez, Bac Nord
• Audrey Diwan, Happening
• Xavier Giannoli, Lost Illusions
• Arthur Harari, Onoda, 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
• Julia Ducournau, Titane

LeMercier wrote/directed/and stars in the pseudo and unauthorized Celine Dion biopic Aline and she's nominated in all three of those categories

Best Actress

Seydoux, Krieps, Efira -- none of whom have ever won are up for Best Actress

• Leila Bekhti (4 noms | 1 win) The Restless
• Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (6 noms | 1 win) The Divide/ La Fracture
• Laure Calamy (4 noms | 1 win) Une femme du monde
• Virginie Efira (5 noms)  Benedetta
• Vicky Krieps (1st nomination) Hold Me Tight
• Valerie Lemercier (8 noms | 2 wins) Aline
• Léa Seydoux (5 noms) France

It's crazy that Virginie Efira and Léa Seydoux haven't won Césars yet but this is not likely the year since they basically ignored the films they're in.

Best Actor

Driver, Magimel, and Niney

• Damien Bonnard (4 noms) The Restless
• Adam Driver (1st nomination) Annette
• Gilles Lellouche (8 noms) Bac Nord
• Vincent Macaigne (5 noms) Medecin de nuit
• Benoît Magimel (4 noms | 1 win) Peaceful/De Son Vivant
• Pio Marmai (4 noms)  The Divide/ La Fracture
• Pierre Niney (5 noms | 1 win) Boite noire

It's a big surprise, given the seven nominations (!) for Vincent Lindon to be snubbed given how extraordinary he is in Titane. It's extremely rare for an American actor to get nominated at the Césars but in the past if they have, they've won. So watch out for an Adam Driver win for Annette. On the other hand Magimel just won the Lumière playing a man with a terminal illness so maybe it's him.

Best Supporting Actress

Sagna, Exarchopoulos and Fichaud

• Jeanne Balibar, Lost Illusions
• Celine de France, Lost Illusions
• Aissatou Diallo Sagna, The Divide/ La Fracture
• Adele Exarchopoulos, Mandibules
• Danielle Fichaud, Aline

Our own Elisa Giudici called Exarchopoulos' performance "splendid" well over a year ago when Mandibules first premiered so given the lack of other nominations for the film, the performance must have stuck with César voters, too.

Best Supporting Actor

Dolan, Lacoste, Leklou

• Francois Civil (1st nomination), Bac Nord
• Xavier Dolan (1st nomination), Lost Illusions
• Vincent Lacoste (5 noms), Lost Illusions
• Karin Leklou (2 noms), Bac Nord
• Sylvain Marcel (1st nom), Aline

Best First Film

• Gagarine, Fanny Liatard, Jeremy Trouilh
• Magnetic Beats, Vincent Mael Cardona
• La Nuee, Just Philippot
• The Velvet Queen, Marie Amiguet, Vincent Munier
• Slalom, Charlene Favier

Best Foreign Film

• Compartment no. 6 (Finland)
• Drive My Car (Japan)
• First Cow (US)
• The Worst Person in the World, (Norway)
• Parallel Mothers (Spain)
• The Father (UK)

It's strange that Parallel Mothers wasn't eligible for the European Film Awards and also that Spain didn't submit it to the Oscars but other than those two bodies it continues to do well leading up to Oscar voting (will the Academy honor Cruz or Almodóvar? They feel like longshots but maybe. Interesting that First Cow is still making its way out there in the world (it first premiered in 2019, had the bulk of its releases in 2020, and continued to hit international markets in 2021)

Best Female Newcomer

Rousselle, Vartolomei, and Zhang

• Noée Abita, Slalom
• Salomé Dewaels, Lost Illusions
• Agathe Rousselle, Titane
• Anamaria Vartolomei, Happening
• Lucie Zhang, Paris, 13th District

Anamaria Vartolomei just won the Lumière in Best Actress for Happening (a very powerful abortion drama) but the Césars placed her in the newcomer category instead.

Best Male Newcomer

Outalbali, Samba, and Voisin

• Sandor Funtek, Supremes
• Sami Outalbali, Une Histoire D’Amour Et De Désir
• Thimotée Robart, Magnetic Beats
• Makita Samba, Paris, 13th District
• Benjamin Voisin, Lost Illusions

Some of you will know Sami Outalbali from the Netflix series Sex Education 

Best Original Screenplay

• Aline
• Annette
• Boite Noire
• The Divide/ La Fracture
• Onoda, 10,000 Nights in the Jungle 

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Les choses humaines
• Happening
• Lost Illusions
• Paris, 13th District
• Hold Me Tight

Best Animated Film

• Even Mice Belong in Heaven
• The Summit of Gods
• La traversée 

Best Documentary 

• Animal
• Bigger Than Us
• Debout les femmes!
• Indes Galantes
• The Velvet Queen

The Velvet Queen, currently in US release, just won the Lumière and placed 13th on Glenn Dunks list of the 25 Best Documentaries of 2021.

Best Cinematography 

• Annette
• Lost Illusions
• Paris, 13th District
• Onoda, 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
• Titane 

Best Original Score

• Annette
• Bac Nord
• Boite Noire
• Paris, 13th District
• The Velvet Queen

Best Sound Editing

• Aline
• Annette
• Boite Noire
• Lost Illusions
• Magnetic Beats

Best Editing

• Annette
• Bac Nord
• The Divide/ La Fracture
• Lost Illusions

Best Costumes 

• Aline
• Annette
• Delicieux
• Eiffel
• Lost Illusions

Best Set Design

• Aline
• Annette
• Delicieux
• Eiffel
• Lost Illusions

Best Visuel Effects 

• Aline
• Annette
• Eiffel
• Lost Illusions
• Titane

Comments

[Edward L.]

Thanks for these! I too am very surprised that Vincent Lindon didn't get nominated for his wonderful performance in Titane. Maybe a vote split between the lead and supporting categories?

[thevoid99]

The lack of love for Titane is upsetting. Where's Petite Maman or has it not be released in theaters in France?

[Score and Cinematography]

Is Lost Illusions on streaming anywhere yet ? Benjamin Voisin Was in Summer of 85 last year so interested to get a newcomer nod.

Also curious about the lack of Petite Maman. One of my favourites this year.

[eduardo ramirez]

the total absence of Petite maman is clearly due to the controversy between Sciamma and the French academy over the Polanski thing,

That's also the reason it wasn't picked as France's submission for the Oscar, but also having Thierry Frémaux in the selection committee has a lot to do with it and explains why they went for Titane over Petite... or Happening even though any of them would have been in the final shortlist for sure

[Kate]

RE: the lack of Petite Maman and Titane

The French reviews for both films were just not that great. Allocine has the critics average as 3.6 and 3.5 out of 5. Annette, Lost Illusions, The Happening, Aline, and Onoda, 10,000 Nights in the Jungle all were rated higher (between 3.9 and 4.4).

Bac Nord and The Divide had equivalently mediocre reviews (3.5, 3.4), but Bac Nord was a massive box office hit. The Divide wasn't a huge hit but did perform significantly better than Petite Maman and it's a political issue movie, not a genre piece.

[FrankOFile]

Presuming you mean Dolan got his first acting nomination. He's won several Cesars (including Best Director).

[pascal le]

The Iranian film noir La loi de Téhéran directed by Saeed Roustayi is also nominated as best foreign movie of the year. Great line-up by the way.

[Peggy Sue]

I like surprises but this is chaos.

[Kris]

XAVIER DOLAN!!! Finally! Merci! :)