On the evening of February 28th, local time, the 50th French Film Cesar Awards ceremony came to an end at the Olympia Concert Hall in Paris. The popular work "Emilia Perez" won seven awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Adapted Screenplay, finally reversing the film's decline in the awards season since the inappropriate remarks of the lead actress Carla Sofia Gascón were exposed.
However, although Gascón, who had been in hiding for a long time, attended the awards ceremony that night, the judges may not have forgiven her for her posts, so in the competition for Best Actress, she lost unexpectedly to Afsia Elchi, the star of "Borgo".
Stills from Emilia Perez
In addition, last year's French box office hit "The Count of Monte Cristo", although it received the most nominations this year with 14, ultimately only won the Best Set Design and Costume Design. The romantic film "Crazy Love", which received 13 nominations, only won one Best Supporting Actor award, all of which became a foil for "Emilia Perez".
It is worth mentioning that "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Mad Love" are also the second and third highest-grossing domestic films in France in 2024. As for the French box office champion of the whole year, "A Little More", it only received a nomination for Best First Feature Film, and finally lost to "Oh My God", which is also a comedy.
In the Best Foreign Language Film category, the British film "Zone of Interest", which missed the last César Awards because it was not released in France until the end of January 2024, was nominated somewhat abruptly this year and eventually defeated films such as "Anora", "The Apprentice", and "The Seed of the Sacred Fig". However, director Jonathan Glazer did not attend the event that night, but asked someone to read out his acceptance speech on his behalf. He once again talked about the Gaza issue and criticized the use of the "World War II" Holocaust and Jewish security issues as an excuse to justify the massacre and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. This wording received warm applause from the audience at the César Awards, and at the 2024 Oscars, Glazer's similar speech caused considerable controversy.
The award ceremony was chaired by French national treasure actress Catherine Deneuve, who announced as soon as she took the stage that she would dedicate the ceremony to the Ukrainian people who have been tortured for more than three years. After the tribute and memorial session prepared for Alain Delon, the first award of the ceremony was announced. Abou Sangare, the leading actor of "Suleiman's Story", won the Best New Actor Award. Including this award, "Suleiman's Story" won a total of four César Awards, which can be said to be the biggest surprise of the night.
Stills from "The Story of Suleiman"
In the film, Abou Sangaré plays an illegal immigrant deliveryman who smuggled into France from Guinea. In real life, the 23-year-old is indeed an immigrant from Guinea. He came to Amiens, France eight years ago and worked as a mechanic. He only obtained a one-year official residence permit on January 8 this year.
In 2023, director Boris Leukan invested in a new film. Abu Sangaré attended the audition with the mentality of looking for a job. Unexpectedly, he was chosen at first sight. Not only did he become the leading actor, but the background story of the entire film was also customized according to his personal experience.
"Suleiman's Story" premiered as a shortlisted film in the "Focus" section at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and won the Jury Prize for second place, while Sangare won the Best Actor Award. In the following six months, this amateur actor who had never been involved in a movie before won the Best Actor Award at the European Film Awards. However, when asked if he planned to work as an actor in the future, he replied: "No, I am a mechanic, this is my profession, and I can't wait to go back to the garage to work."
In addition, American actor Julia Roberts and Greek-French director Costa-Gavras received honorary awards. It is worth mentioning that the César Awards Honorary Awards have not been given to non-French filmmakers very often. Before Julia Roberts, only Kate Winslet (2012), Scarlett Johansson (2014), Michael Douglas (2016), Robert Redford (2019), Cate Blanchett (2022) and Christopher Nolan (2024) have won them.
The French Film César Awards were established in 1975, and this year marks the half-century anniversary of their founding. However, in recent years, the award has also been controversial for its lack of transparency and inclusiveness, and for ignoring sexual harassment in the French film industry. This year, the César Awards introduced new rules, emphasizing that violent acts, especially filmmakers who are under official investigation for sexual violence, are not allowed to participate in César Awards-related activities, including not attending the awards ceremony, until the case is resolved.
Recently, Patrick Sobelman, director of the César Awards, said in an interview with the media that they have made various improvements in the past few years to meet public expectations and the development of the times. "We have more and more female members, and now female members account for 45%, while in 2020 it was only one-third. We have done a lot of work to transform ourselves. In the final analysis, the César Awards belong to the 5,000 members of the French Film Academy, and everyone has an equal share. Over the past four years, we have been working hard to make the Academy as democratic, equal and transparent as possible."
Indeed, compared to the upcoming Oscars, the French César Awards is much smaller, with a permanent staff of only seven people. They do not accept government public funds, and their funding comes mainly from the 90-euro membership fee paid by more than 5,000 members each year, plus commercial cooperation agreements such as the broadcasting rights of the awards ceremony signed with Canal+ TV.
However, in the years since the pandemic, the ratings for the César Awards have been declining, from 2 million viewers to a historic low of 1.3 million in 2022. Last year's ceremony attracted 1.86 million viewers, still a tiny minority among France's nearly 70 million population.
[List of winners of the 50th César Awards]
Best Film: Emilia Perez
Best Director: Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Pérez"
Best Actress: Afsia Elchi, "Borgo"
Best Actor: Karim Lakelu, "Jim's Story"
Best Supporting Actress: Nina Mehrreis, "Suleiman's Story"
Best Supporting Actor: Alain Chabat, "Crazy Love"
Best New Actress: Myvonne Barthelemy, "Oh My God"
Best New Actor: Abu Sangaré, "The Story of Suleiman"
Best Original Screenplay: Delphine Agut, Boris Leukan, "The Story of Suleiman"
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Perez"
Best Animated Feature Film: "Life of Cats"
Best documentary feature: Bertrand's Farm
Best First Feature Film: "Oh My God"
Best Foreign Language Film: "Zone of Interest"
Best Original Score: Clement Ducor, Camille, Emilia Perez
Best Sound: Nils Barletta, Aymeric Devordale, Cyril Holz, Erwin Kzarnet, "Emilia Perez"
Best Cinematography: Paul Guiham, "Emilia Perez"
Best Film Editing: Xavier Silwan, "Suleiman's Story"
Best Costume Design: Thierry Delet, The Count of Monte Cristo
Best Set Design: Stéphane Taiazon, The Count of Monte Cristo
Best Visual Effects: Cédric Fayole, "Emilia Perez"
Best Short Film: "The Man Who Can't Keep Silent"
Best Animated Short: "Ah!"
Best documentary short: "Southern Bride"
