In recent years, the cinema has been shaken up by the controversy around Roman Polanski – some of whom call for a boycott of his films because of the rape accusations hanging over him – then by the coronavirus pandemic and its management by the government, to start with the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot. Result: the two previous Caesar ceremonies have earned Florence Foresti and Marina Foïs strong criticism. Will their successor do better?
This October 21, we discover the name of the new master of ceremonies for the 2022 edition. The Césars have bet on a regular in the exercise by entrusting Antoine De Caunes with the function. The 47th César party, organized at the Olympia on February 25, 2022, will be broadcast as usual in clear and live on Canal +, the organizers said. By choosing Antoine De Caunes, a television and media man who is also an actor and director, the Césars are entrusting the ceremony this year to a regular at Canal + and the exercise, which he will take charge for the tenth time since 1996.
Antoine De Caunes therefore succeeds Marina Foïs, who had managed a ceremony organized in the midst of a health crisis. The tone of the evening, between endless criticism against the government and often schoolboy humor, had been considered catastrophic by many members of the profession and this had also been sanctioned by a calamitous audience: 1.6 million viewers, the worst score of the ceremony in ten years. The year before, although heavily criticized for her attitude as well as for her salary, Florence Foresti had however attracted 2.1 million viewers, achieving a very good score.
This will be the second Caesar ceremony since the existential crisis experienced by the institution, accused of opacity and interpersonal skills. The Academy has since been profoundly renewed under the aegis of a new direction, in the sense of greater diversity and parity.