by Nathaniel Rogers
NOUVELLE VAGUE
(I know I know we need to talk about the BAFTAs but I started this post first. Patience). We like to share the César nominations each year (i.e. the French Oscars) and as in most years there is at least a bit of Oscar crossover -- this year you see it in Best Screenplay, Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Feature, and of course Best International Feature which tends to be the category with the most crossover at any country's own awards. Richard Linklater's delightful black-and-white retelling of the making of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, Nouvelle Vague, led the nominations. Their Oscar submission/nominee this year Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident received just two nominations but it's in the top category.
To make this even more interesting we thought we'd compare it to the Lumière Awards which were already held and which I've heard called France's Golden Globes though I don't know about the accuracy of that. Their taste runs quite different this year as they loved François Ozon's The Stranger most which barely shows up at the Césars. Okay ready? Read on for Isabelle Huppert's latest, Jodie Foster's snub, and more...
| CÉSAR Nominations | Lumiére Awards |
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| BEST FILM | BEST FILM |
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| BEST DIRECTOR | BEST DIRECTOR |
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The chief difference here is of course The Stranger. The Lumieres loved it. The Césars not so much. We were planning to say that it should be considered a threat to be the French Oscar submission next season (since it opened in France after the eligibility cutoff for Oscar submissions) but then the Césars mostly snubbed it. An unexpected turn of events -- at least for this french-cinema-loving American.
At any rate Ozon has a strange relationship with the Césars. He's been nominated intermittently but he has yet to win which is odd considering how enduring, acclaimed and internationally-recognized his career has been. France has only submitted him for the Oscars once (8 Women in 2002 for which he won the Lumière for Best Director) but he's had multiple international hits like Under the Sand (EFA & César nominations), Swimming Pool (EFA nod), and Potiche (BAFTA, César, and EFA nominations), and his films still regularly get distribution outside of France even if they aren't as popular internationally as they were in the 2000s and 2010s.
| César Nominations | Lumière Awards |
 RICHEST WOMAN IN WORLD |
 CASE 137 |
| BEST ACTRESS | BEST ACTRESS |
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| BEST ACTOR | BEST ACTOR |
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A few similarities across the Lead Acting races but differences of opinion too. It's interesting that Jodie Foster shows up at the Lumière's for her under-appreciated but great star turn in A Private Life but does not show at the Césars. There aren't that many American icons that speak such fluent French and very occassionally work in French cinema that are also world-famous movie stars so it's strange that Jodie hasn't even been given an Honorary at the Cesars when so many of her peers have like Johnny Depp, Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Will Smith, Hugh Grant, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Scarlett Johansson, and Julia Roberts. I myself don't understand the muted reaction to her movie. I thought it was so interesting and fun and Foster is just great in it, a reminder of how captivating she can be when she's centered.
Swann Arlaud, best known to US audiences as the silver fox from Anatomy of a Fall, was nominated in Lead at the Lumieres but has to settle for a Supporting Actor nomination (for a different film) with César voters.
The lead categories are of course where we see familiar names like Denmark's Claes Bang and France's own Isabelle Huppert (who both work all over the world) -- the Lumieres are a little more international career friendly apparently because they also include Jodie Foster and very multilingual Luxembourgish actress Vicky Krieps (what can't she speak... seriously? Consider Corsage the excellent Austrian Oscar finalist a few years back which has dialogue in four different languages.)
| César Nominations | Lumière Awards |
 JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE |
 THE LITTLE SISTER |
| BEST FEMALE NEWCOMER | BEST FEMALE REVELATION |
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| BEST MALE NEWCOMER | BEST MALE RELEVATION |
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You'll remember that Nadia Melliti won Best Actress at Cannes this year for her titular role in The Little Sister, about a French-Algerian lesbian (the movie also won the Queer Palm); She seems like a definite threat to win a Cesar.
Similar amount of crossover (i.e. mostly 3/5 alignments) in the "breakthrough" type of categories where both awards bodies honor new stars. Curious to see Theodore Pellerin show up here. The French-Canadian actor has been familiar to us for a handful of years now but maybe France hasn't gotten most of his films? But then again the awards history suggests you can stay in "Newcomer" territory for a long time in France. Benjamin Voisin, for example, who US audiences probably know best at the genius pastry chef lead of the Apple TV streaming series Careme, is nominated in lead this year, but he first received two consecutive nominations at the Césars in this category. Another example Felix Lefebvre, who was nominated alongside him for François Ozon's Summer of 85 (2020) returns to the Newcomer category five years later. It's a puzzlement!
It's a reminder that if Oscar had this category there would be SHENANIGANS in campaigning just like there is now with leads campaigning as supporting. Paul Mescal probably would have campaigned as a Newcomer instead of supporting this season even though he'd already been Emmy, EFA, BAFTA, and Oscar nominated before Hamnet. (Sorry to keep harping on Paul but I guess that decision really left a bad taste in my mouth despite my love for the actor's work)
| César Nominations | Lumière Awards |
 NINO |
 THE GREAT ARCH |
| BEST FIRST FILM | BEST FIRST FILM |
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| BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY | BEST SCREENPLAY |
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| BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY | |
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Here we see the Césars treat writing like the Oscars do splitting it into two categories but the Lumieres are like the Globes in this regard with just one category.
| César Nominations | Lumière Awards |
 THE GIRL IN THE SNOW |
 WHISPERS IN THE WOODS |
| BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY | BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY |
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| BEST ORIGINAL SCORE | BEST MUSIC |
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The Girl in the Snow (also known as L'Engloutie) which is about a teacher sent to a small remote village to educate children, along with the two black and white beauties (Nouvelle Vague, The Stranger) were all up for Cinematography from both awards organizations.
It's worth noting that Whispers in the Woods, which won for Music at the Lumières and was up for Cinematography there, too, is a nature Documentary. Though I am no great fan of mixing documentaries with narrative features in awards, it's always struck me as odd that the Oscars allow it but almost never do it. It seems like Documentaries only ever show up regularly in Original Song and then once in a blue moon in Editing but surely if you're not making the distinction why haven't some superly shot docs made the Oscar cinematography list?
| César Nominations | Lumiére Awards |
 LITTLE AMELIE |
 ARCO |
| BEST ANIMATED FILM | BEST ANIMATED FILM |
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| BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM | BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM |
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| BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM | BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM |
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As expected, given their track record at other awards, French animated features Arco and Little Amelie did well at home, too. They're both so good so it's wonderful that Oscar nominations didn't prove too difficult to secure.
As for International Feature, The Secret Agent continues to perform formidably. Can it beat Sentimental Value at the Oscars despite the latter having far more nominations and taking the EFA?
in terms of categories that the Lumiere's don't have, the César Awards chose this way...
CÉSAR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Nadia Melliti & Park Ji-Min are both nominated for THE LITTLE SISTER
- Jeanne Balibar, Nino
- Dominique Blanc, Leave One Day
- Marina Foïs, The Richest Woman in the World
- Park Ji-Min, The Little Sister
- Vilmela Ponds, The Ties That Bind Us
Park Ji-Min, who you'll remember as the fantastic leading actress of the Cambodian Oscar finalist Return to Seoul (2022), is up for Supporting Actress in The Little Sister. Yay!
CÉSAR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Swann Arlaud, Xavier Dolan and Claes Bang in THE GREAT ARCH
- Swann Arlaud, The Great Arch
- Xavier Dolan, The Great Arch
- Michel Fau, The Great Arch
- Pierre Lottin, The Stranger
- Raphaël Personnaz, The Richest Woman in the World
The Great Arch, the story of the 1980s French design competition won by an unknown Danish architect, really dominated Supporting Actor with the great Swann Arlaud, the French Canadian auteur/actor Xavier Dolan and Michel Fau (who plays François Mitterand) all nominated. In Richest Woman in the World -- which is apparently a comedy despit the heavy subject matter -- Raphaël Personnaz plays the loyal butler to an heiress who leaves hundreds of millions in her will to an unscrupulous gay artist, prompting lawsuits from her family. Did they mean for the butler character to randomly be one of the most handsome men in the world or was this just an accident of casting?
BEST EDITING
- 13 Days, 13 Nights
- Case 137
- The Little Sister
- Nouvelle Vague
- The Ties That Bind Us
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
- Colours of Time
- La Condition
- Dracula
- Nouvelle Vague
- The Richest Woman in the World
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
- Colours of Time
- Dog 51
- The Great Arch
- Once Upon My Mother
- Nouvelle Vague
BEST SOUND
- Arco
- Case 137
- Leave One Day
- Nouvelle Vague
- Whisper in the Woods
While the nature doc Whisper in the Woods received more nominations at the Lumières, apparently the César voters like it, too.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
- Dog 51
- The Great Arch
- L'Homme qui Retrécit
- Nouvelle Vague
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
- Les Belles Cicatrices
- Dieu Est Timide
- Fille De L'Eau
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
- Au Bain Des Dames
- Car Wash
- Ni Dieu Ni Père
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
- Big Boys Don't Cry
- Death of an Actor
- Two People Exchanging Saliva
- Wonderwall
Two People Exchanging Salive is the Oscar crossover here.