- César Awards Tear gas against anti-Polanski protesters
- Protests. "Violanski": the anti-Polanski campaign conditions the César gala
He was not the big winner of the night, but he won one of the fattest prizes at the César gala, the equivalent of the Oscars and the Goya in France. The film J'accuse (The officer and the spy) by Roman Polanski won the César for best director, best adapted screenplay and best costumes, despite the controversy raised in France by the 12 nominations of the director, accused of rape by several women in recent years.
Cold applause in the room after it was announced that Polanski won the statuette for best director. Several actresses left the Pleyel room, where the ceremony took place, after this award, the penultimate night of "the Caesar of shame", as they were called by feminists protesting in the street against Polanski.
Among the actresses who left the room was Adèle Haenel, nominated for best actress for her role as the young Heloïse in Portrait of a woman on fire. "To recognize Polanski is to spit in the face of all the victims. That is to say that raping women is not so bad," said the actress days before the ceremony.
Haenel was the first prominent French actress to report sexual abuse in French cinema. He denounced director Christophe Ruggia for sexual harassment and inappropriate touching, which began when she was 12 years old.
The director and the entire team of The officer and the spy were absent from the gala. Polanski gave up going to the protests announced by feminist groups and in order to avoid more tensions. No one from the team came to collect the statuettes, which will be delivered later to the winners.
The miserable director Ladj Ly was the big winner of the night to achieve four César awards: best film, best revelation actor (Alexis Manenti), best editing and the audience prize. But his victory was eclipsed by the storm Polanski.
"Welcome to the last ... oops, to the 45th César ceremony," said the comedian and presenter of the Florence Foresti gala at the beginning of the ceremony, in which she tried a good dose of humor to lower the tension of the gala and threw several pullas at Polanski. "There are 12 times when we are going to have a problem tonight," Foresti said, in a clear reference to the 12 nominations of Polanski's film.
"There are films that deal with strong issues: Like Thank God that talks about pedophilia in the Church. The officer and the spy, who talks about pedophilia in the 70s," Foresti added, making a clear reference to the accusations of rape of minors weighing against Polanski for years.
Before the start of the gala, hundreds of protesters, mostly women, concentrated in the vicinity of the red carpet, to protest against the 12 nominations for the Polanski film. There were moments of tension between the activists and the police and tear gas near the red carpet.
"The Caesar for the best rapist is for Roman Polanski", "I accuse Violanski" (as the feminists call him), "Polanski, rapist", "Violanski, nominated. Victims, silenced", "No honor for a rapist" and "Violanski, his place in the prison, not in the Pleyel (room)," said some banners displayed by the protesters. The activists shouted slogans against Polanski: "Violanski, rapist, guilty cinema." And they showed lists with the names of the alleged victims of the director, mostly minors, and their ages.
Élodie, a high school teacher, went to the protest because she is "engaged in the fight against sexist violence" and considers it important that a man like Polanski "not be put in front of the scene." This teacher is against the idea, defended by some in France that we must separate man and his work when it comes to rewarding Polanski or not. "If a teacher is a pedophile we would not ask to separate the teacher from the man. For me it is the same for art," Éloide added.
"Less Cesars and more Cleopatras," said the banner that Gwladys Bernard, a feminist activist from the La Barbe collective, exhibited. This association denounces the lack of parity of the French Film Academy. And remember that of the 44 César awards for best director that have been given, only one has won a woman, director Tonie Marshall. If I had been able to speak with the members of the Academy before the ceremony, Gwladys, who manifested himself with a false beard, would have told them "what do they think of their daughters" before voting.
The best actor award was won by Roschdy Zem for his role as the quiet curator Daoud in Roubaix, a lumiere, and the best actress, Anaïs Demoustier, for his role Alice's advice. Fanny Ardant won the statuette for best supporting actress for La belle époque and Swann Arlaud, the best supporting actor for Thank God.
Honorary Award ... Desert
César for best foreign film went to Parasitos, by Bong Joon-Ho. This Korean film made history in the Oscars by winning the award for best film, something that had not been achieved until then a film shot in a language other than English. Pain and glory of Pedro Almodóvar, who was nominated in this category, was left without an award.
Papicha, from director Mounia Meddour, on women's combat in Algeria, won two awards for best cousin opera and best revelation actress (Lyna Khoudri). And M de Yolande Zauberman, on pedophilia within the Jewish utraorthodox community in Tel Aviv, won Caesar for best documentary.
And the honorary Caesar went to ... nobody. For the first time in 45 years, this award was deserted. Such a thing had never happened since these awards were created in 1976, equivalent in France to the Oscars or the Goya. According to the newspaper Le Parisien, the French Academy of Cinema had initially contacted actor Brad Pitt, he would have agreed to receive the award, but eventually he would have backed down.
There was no time to find a substitute in the wake of the Polanski controversy and the resignation in block of the members of the direction of the Academy of the Cinema of France after the critics received by the lack of parity within the academy. The last to receive the honorary Caesar for his career as a whole was Robert Redford in 2019.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- Brad Pitt
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- Pedro Almodovar
- Algeria
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