“La Nuit du 12” won the Césars for Best Film and Best Director, Virginie Efira being crowned Best Actress and Benoît Magimel Best Actor. The César ceremony encouraged French auteur cinema, lively and of high quality.
The 48th César night confirmed the excellence of French cinema by rewarding a diverse 2023 selection. She crowned Dominik Moll’s atypical thriller The Night of 12 of six statuettes, including that of best film and best direction. Viirginie Elfira is best actress for See Paris again by Alice Winocour and Benoît Magimel, best actor for the second consecutive year, a first at the Césars, for Pacifiction – Torment on the Islands by Albert Serra. The Césars celebrate the resumption of cinema, the theaters having seen 152 million spectators in 2022. A sharp increase in attendance which revives that of before Covid 19, and which ranks it first in Europe.
>> Relive the 48th Cesar ceremony
“The Night of 12”, investigation into a feminicide, crowned Best Film
The subject of Dominik Moll’s film is inspired by the real unsolved case of the murder of a young woman who was burned alive by her attacker, who was never found. He adapts around thirty pages (out of 500) from Pauline Guéna’s book 1.3.A year at the PJ (Editions Gallimard), which earned him the César for best adaptation. With 122 women killed by domestic violence in 2021 and 121 in 2022, France is showing worrying consistency. A high rate. Disclosure of cases reveals ” freedom of speech thanks to #MeToo“, according to the film’s producer, but now we have to move on to ” the liberation of listening” victims by the police, mostly men, who collect their complaints.
The thanks of the director, already César for Best Film in 2021 for Harry, a friend who wishes you wellwent ” to the spectators, for their curiosity. We are lucky to have an audience that thinks outside the box”he added, hailing a success based on word-of-mouth in the middle of the summer, the film being released on July 13, 2022.
Women on the charts
Recognized in numerous awards – Best Supporting Actress to Noémie Merlant in The InnocentBest female hope for Nadia Tereszkiewicz in The Almond Treesand Best Actress to Virginie Efira for See Paris again by Alice Winocour – the winners had a word for women filmmakers, none of whom were present in the Best Direction selection.
Virginie Efira dedicated her César to the many directors she worked with. Alice Diop, awarded the César for best first film for Saint Omer , had a thought for her fellow directors all over the world. The Best Original Score awarded to Irêne Drésel for Full time enabled her to dedicate her prize to the five female composers who preceded her at previous ceremonies, without ever having been rewarded. Finally, Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani declared in a recorded message her support for the Iranian people who are still fighting for gender equality in Iran, despite a murderous crackdown, after the murder of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 by the police of the manners in Tehran. The Iranian people” hold out your hand” she launched. The Czech director of my afghan family Michaela Pavlatova, César for Best Animated Feature, dedicated her award to Ukraine
The surprises
While The Innocent by Louis Garrel was the favorite with eleven nominations, he ends up with two statuettes (Best Supporting Actress to Noémie Merlant, and Best Screenplay to Louis Garrel, Naïla Guiguet and Tanguy Vieil) .
Pacifiction – Torment on the Islands by Albert Serra, also with two prizes, is a pleasant surprise. He won the César for Best Actor awarded to Benoît Magimel, who received his second César in the category in two consecutive years, a first.
The work also won the prize for Best Photo, which rewards the work of Arthur Tort, whose beauty plays a major role in the staging of the film. Another nice surprise Full time by Eric Gravel, won two Césars, that of Best Editing for Mathilde Van Moortel, and that of Best Original Music for Irène Drésel who participates marvelously in the frenetic pace of the film.
The forgotten
While we could wait EO by the Polish Jerzy Skolimowski as César for the best foreign film, this one returned to As Bestas , a beautiful film by Spaniard Rodrigo Sorogoyen, already awarded nine Goyas (Spanish Caesars). The academy honors a Franco-Spanish co-production whose main actress and actor are French: Marina Foïs and Denis Menochet (Goya 2023 for best actor). Notable on the list: In body by Cédric Klapish, a marvelous dance film, where the Star of the Paris Opera, Marion Barbeau, converts to modern dance. Simone, the trip of the century would have won the César du public if it had not been canceled this year, since it gathered 2,470,046 spectators in two and a half months of operation, from its release on October 12 until December 2022, a record . However, he won two so-called technical Cesars, for his costumes and sets.
The Caesar of honor to David Fincher presented by Brad Pitt
The presentation of the Honorary Cesar by Brad Pitt to David Fincher was one of the highlights of the evening. A surprise to see the actor arrive on stage, which earned him a long ovation from the public before praising the man who directed him in three films. After revealing it in Seven in 1995, the director called on him again in fight club And The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The actor had fun with the legendary perfectionism attributed to the director, who would have inflicted 90 takes on him during the filming of a sequence. ” It was actually 92“, he corrected, a little less than the record held by Stanley Kubrick on Shining, with 127 takes during a scene with Shelley Duvall.
Tributes to deceased sacred monsters
The disappearance of pillars of French cinema have marked the year 2022, including those of Michel Bouquet, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Marie Straub, Alain Tanner and most recently Michel Deville. In always very precisely edited, meticulous and moving clips, Peter Brook, Gina Lollobrigida, Mylène Demongeot, Régine, Dani, Paul Vecchiali, Just Jeackin, William Klein, Vangelis, Louis Velle, Charlotte Valandrey and too many others also paraded.
The complete list of the 48th César
In chronological order of the ceremony, here are the twenty-five César 2023 awards for French films released in 2022:
Most promising Actress : Nadia Tereszkiewicz for The Almond Trees by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi (the winning actress starred in my crime by François Ozon, which will be released on April 5).
Best Male Hope: Bastien Bouillon for The Night of 12 by Dominik Moll
Best short fiction film: leave one day by Amélie Bonnin
Best costumes: costume designer JJ Lepage for Simone, the trip of the century by Olivier Dahan
Best sets: Christian Marti for Simone, the trip of the century by Olivier Dahan
Best first film: Saint Omer by Alice Diop.
Best Animated Short Film: Granny’s Sex Life (21st prize awarded worldwide).
Best Animated Feature Film: my afghan family by Michaela Pavlatova.
Best Sound: François Morel and Luc Thomas for The Night of 12 by Dominik Moll
Best Supporting Actress: Noemie Merlant for The Innocent (role of Clemence)
Best Original Music: the composer Irêne Drésel for the electronic music of Full time by Eric Gravel
Best documentary short: Maria Schneider by Elisabeth Subrin. Interview with the actress traumatized by the filming of the Last tango in Paris by Bernardo Bertolucci (1971) and committed suicide in 2011
Best Feature Documentary: Return to Reims(Fraglents) by Jean-Gabriel Périot, on the archives of a workers’ social struggle from the 1950s to the present day.
Best visual effects: Lawrence Herman for Notre Dame is burning by Jean-Jacques Annaud.
Best foreign film: As Bestas by Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Spain).
Honorary Caesar awarded to American director David Fincher ( Seven, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) presented by Brad Pitt.
Best Picture: Arthur Tort for Pacifiction – Torment on the Islands by Albert Serra
Best editing: Mathilde Van Moortel for Full time.
Best Achievement: Dominick Moll for The night of 12 (second Caesar after Harry, a friend who wishes you wellCaesar 2021)..
Best Screenplay: Louis Garrel, Naïla Guiguet and Tanguy Vieil for The Innocent by Louis Garrel.
Best adaptation: Gilles Marchand and Dominik Moll for The Night of 12 by Dominik Moll.
Best Supporting Actor: Bouli Lanners for The night of 12 by Dominik Moll.
Best Actress: Virginie Efira for See Paris again by Alice Winocourt.
Best actor Benoît Magimel (second César in two consecutive years) for Pacifiction – Torment on the Islands by Albert Serra.
Best film : The night of 12 by Dominick Moll. Producer Caroline Benjo clarified that the complaints of women victims of domestic violence, mostly received by men, are not sufficiently taken into account. “#MeToo has liberated speech, now we should liberate listening”, subject at the heart of the film, she said. Its co-producer, Barbara Letellier, advocated the defense of freedom of expression for artists around the world. She thanked the police officers of Grenoble who participated in the realism of the daily life of the police reconstituted in the film, and expressed a thought to “the a real Clara from the movie who was called Maud“.