Who will succeed The Night of the 12th, awarded six times last year? Two big favorites emerge for the 49th César ceremony, which begins at 8:45 p.m. on Canal+, Friday February 23: The Animal Kingdomby Thomas Cailley, and Anatomy of a fall, by Justine Triet (already Palme d’Or at Cannes and nominated five times for the Oscars), with twelve and eleven nominations respectively. Two other feature films are outsiders: Love and the forestsValérie Donzelli (four nominations) and I will always see your facesby Jeanne Herry (nine nominations).
The ceremony, chaired by Valérie Lemercier, will take place in a context of freedom of speech around sexual violence in French cinema, after a wave of testimonies in recent weeks, notably those of Judith Godrèche, who should give a speech during ceremony. Follow the Caesars in our live stream.
A call to demonstrate in front of the Olympia against “violence and silence”. The CGT Spectacle has arranged to meet at 7 p.m., in front of the Olympia, for a rally in which the general secretary of the union, Sophie Binet, and the 50/50 collective, which defends diversity and parity in cinema, will participate. “We give our full support to Judith Godrèche as well as to all the other actresses who had the courage to expose acts of violence to the public,” writes the CGT in a press release, emphasizing that “sexist and sexual violence on sets also affects technicians and actresses of lesser notoriety”.
Thirteen animators for more dynamism. A line-up of stars will take turns presenting this César ceremony. The organizers are repeating the collegial presentation tested and approved last year (the audience experienced a surge, with 1.7 million viewers against 1.3 million in 2022). Ariane Ascaride, Bérénice Bejo, Dali Benssalah, Juliette Binoche, Dany Boon, Bastien Bouillon, Audrey Diwan, Ana Girardot, Diane Kruger, Benoît Magimel, Paul Mirabel, Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Jean-Pascal Zadi will follow one another on stage.
Agnès Jaoui and Christopher Nolan will receive an honorary César. Already winner of six awards, including four for best screenplay, one for best supporting actress and one for best film, Agnès Jaoui will receive a seventh statuette. Making her the most awarded female artist in the history of the ceremony. The director ofIntestellar, Inception And Oppenheimer (also a big favorite for the Oscars, with 13 nominations) will also receive this award for his entire body of work.
The essential Raphaël Quenard rewarded? He is the actor that all of French cinema is chasing. Raphaël Quenard succeeds in being nominated in three categories… for three different films: best actor for his role as an angry spectator in Yannick, by Quentin Dupieux, masculine revelation for Dog of the breakageby Jean-Baptiste Durand, but also best documentary short film for The actora self-portrait that he co-directed with Hugo David.