“We are in deep shit, but we are the cinema. […] We are the best cinema in Europe! “Launched actor and humorist Jamel Debbouze by opening the 48th Cesar ceremony in a sketch on Friday.
Ironically about the rise of platforms and the price of seats, the actor opened to laughter, especially from the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, seated in the middle of the Olympia hall, the most prestige of French cinema, which seeks to regain its luster.
Who will succeed lost illusionswinner last year with seven statuettes, including that of the best film? The Innocenta cheerful police comedy by Louis Garrel, is in the lead with 11 nominations.
Just behind : The Night of 12a thriller by Dominik Moll which tells the story of the impossible investigation into a feminicide (10 nominations), and In body, the last Cédric Klapisch, on the reconstruction of a dancer from the Paris Opera, who also managed to find his audience in theaters at the end of another delicate year for French cinema.
As for best actresses, Virginie Efira, nominated for See Paris again as a witness to an attack in a Parisian brasserie, has every chance, notably against Adèle Exarchopoulos (I don’t give a fuck) or Laure Calamy (Full time).
Among the male performers, Louis Garrel and Benoît Magimel are in the running, the latter being able to achieve an unprecedented consecutive double, after having already won the statuette for best actor last year for In his lifetimewith Catherine Deneuve.
In the category of best directors, Louis Garrel, Cédric Klapisch and Dominik Moll, already Caesarized 22 years ago for Harry a friend who wishes you wellCedric Jimenez (November) and Albert Serra (Pacifiction-Torment on the Islands) are in the running.
Once again, the César for best director will therefore go to a director, as no female filmmaker has been nominated this year. And Tonie Marshall will remain the only director in the history of the 7th French art to have been crowned for Venus beauty institute… in 2000.
Alice Guy and Cleopatra Prize
A situation that is all the more delicate for the Academy since, in the “best film” category, only one director has seen her work nominated, The Almond Trees by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, and that diversity is almost absent from the nominations.
Faced with this even more marked imbalance this year, some alternative prizes awarded in recent days are trying to make themselves known.
The 6th Alice Guy Prize (named after the first filmmaker in history), awarded to the best female director, chose to honor Alice Winocour for See Paris again and its competitor, the Cléopâtre prize, launched this year by the French magazine Causette, was awarded to Alice Diop (Saint-Omerawarded at the Venice Film Festival) and Rebecca Zlotowski (Other people’s children).
Beyond the prizes, the Cesar ceremony, broadcast on Canal +, a channel which has just reaffirmed that it intended to keep its place as a major financier of French cinema, must once again prove its relevance.
In full social movement, the evening will probably be an opportunity to speak on pension reform. But the 2021 ceremony, where misplaced humour, self-talk and artists’ recriminations created unease, is still a scarecrow.
As for the audience, after hitting bottom last year with 1.3 million viewers, can it dig deeper?
In an attempt to get back on track, the presidency of the evening at the Olympia was entrusted to Tahar Rahim and the presentation to a collegiate team of masters and mistresses of ceremonies, from Emmanuelle Devos to Eye Haïdara, via Alex Lutz and Ahmad Sulla.
An Honorary Cesar will be awarded to American director David Fincher (Seven, fight club, The Social Network), for his entire career.