César Winners: David Fincher, "The Night of the 12th" and surprise presenter Brad Pitt

by Arnaud Trouve

Brad Pitt and Virginie Efira present the Honorary César to David Fincher

The 48th French César Awards were just held and, as expected, The Night of the 12th was the big winner. It won Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Male Newcomer, just like last year's champion Lost Illusions. Its two additional prizes were for Best Sound and Best Director. Dominik Moll almost broke the record at the Césars for the longest time between two directing wins (he previously won 22 years ago for the thriller With A Friend Like Harry)...

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César Nominations: "L'Innocent" leads and David Fincher will receive the Honorary César

by Arnaud Trouvé

Louis Garrel & Noémi Merlant in "L'Innocent", the nomination leader

The 48th César awards have released their list of nominations, and guess what? Just like the Oscars, an oddball family comedy leads with 11 nominations, including nearly the same acting breakdown (1 lead, 2 Supporting Actress, 1 Supporting Actor). L'Innocent is nowhere near as eccentric as Everything Everywhere All at Once, but it's a pleasant heist movie and the first box-office hit for director Louis Garrel (who also stars, his biggest hits in the US have been Greta Gerwig's Little Women and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers).

I mentioned L'Innocent's box-office on purpose given that French cinema is having an existential crisis: for the first time in decades, no national production managed to crack our yearly top 10 box-office...

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César Winners: Cate Blanchett, 'Annette', and 'Lost Illusions'

by Nathaniel R

Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert backstage at the Césars (that's Ronald Chammah, Isabelle's man, between them)

France's top awards, the Césars, were held last night. The historical costume drama Lost Illusions which had led the nominations took home the most prizes including Best Film. But all was not lost for its competition since all but one of them won at least one César. The thorny musical tragedy Annette was the runner up in terms of wins even repeating the Best Director win at Cannes for Leos Carax. And of course Cate Blanchett took the Honorary César and was introduced by Isabelle Huppert herself.

The winners and comments and a few videos from the show are after the jump. (If we've written about the film, it's linked up)...

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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...

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Gaspard Ulliel (1984-2022)

by Eric Blume

My heart broke this morning, waking up to news that the great French actor Gaspard Ulliel passed away today as a result of a skiing accident. He was just 37. This is a true tragedy, and a huge loss to the cinema.Despite his youth, he'd been in the film business for over twenty years...

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