The future of the Academy of Caesar is uncertain. The management of the institution, chaired by producer Alain Tézian since 2003; announced this Thursday evening its "collective resignation" in full operational crisis, two weeks before the 45th edition of the annual ceremony, which will take place on February 28. A general assembly of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema (Academy of Cinema Arts and Technology) will therefore take place after the 45th ceremony, to elect a new directorate and modify the statutes of the organization. The goal: modernize its operation, deemed obsolete.
This resignation responds to a context of crisis: while the controversy surrounding Roman Polanski's film is raging, 200 personalities from French cinema (Omar Sy, Leïla Bekhti, Marina Foïs, etc.) denounce the opacity of the institution in a forum published this Monday on the World site . A discontent that crystallized after the refusal deemed "arbitrary" of the Academy to let two "godmothers", Virginie Despentes and Claire Denis, chosen by young actors, accompany them to the dinner of Revelations on January 13. Director Louis-Julien Petit, signatory of the podium, details these transparency issues for 20 Minutes .
How do you react to the resignation of the entire Board of Directors of the Académie des Césars?
The announcement of the resignation of Alain Terzian and his management committee is positive news. The association will be overhauled under the supervision of the National Center for Cinema and the Animated Image (CNC) and its president Dominique Boutonnat, who will be responsible for consulting and supporting the reorganization of the Academy, to make it more fair, transparent and fair. It is the beginning of a transparency that we are now more than 600 or 700 [signatories] to ask for. It's always nice to feel heard.
What kind of profile would you like to see as president of the association?
As the members of the management committee are going to be replaced, I hope that this will allow more youth, more parity, more diversity ... I would in any case like the profiles to be known by the Academy. There must be a vote, and more communication, that we consult the members, as in any association.
What do you expect from the overhaul of the functioning of the Academy of Caesar?
What we hope for is a complete overhaul of the management of the Academy, as the statutes of an association law 1901 require. We need a representative direction of cinema today. Members should have the right to vote and this has never been the case. But there are other questions about opacity, which have still not been resolved. Who are the 4,700 members of the Academy? I ask as a member that this list be public, that we know who these 4,700 people are. We have to make the votes public, like at the Oscars and at the Bafta, so that we know how many percentage of votes a film has obtained. It is very important, I think.
And then there are the DVDs [the DVDs of the films of the year eligible for the Césars, sent to the voters]. There are only 180 DVDs in this box: you have to pay 6,500 euros gross per distributor to be there. What do we do with the 180 other films that exist, which are not in the box, are not eligible? One film in two is not eligible for the César awards, because they cannot pay. That is not fair. I would dream of having all the films of the year in consultation, perhaps by links.
The grievances against the opacity of the Academy do not date from this year. Was it the controversy surrounding the sponsorship of the revelations that provoked this movement?
Yes, it is this injustice… Me, what broke my heart, it was this young actor, Jean-Christophe [Folly] who did not go to this evening because he wanted his godmother [ Virginie Despentes] and that it was not the case, because she was not aware of it. So he deprived himself of this evening! Everyone must have this chance to be a godfather or godmother. Other people could not be, the list is long. Today, I am delighted that all of this is being called into question. I would like that next year there will be no positioning of the Academy on such and such. We do "only" cinema, it would take a little more humility.
The lack of diversity in the Caesar ceremonies is once again pointed out. How can we do to improve this?
The problem is to know who the members are. It all comes down to that. The results are not public, so we cannot appreciate the reasons why a film is named or not. At the Oscars there are colleges of voters, we have statistics. There, we know nothing. Mr. Terzian stated that he wanted more parity, that if there were more parity in the Polanski Academy would not have had as many nominations. But it is up to him to say that, as the vote is not public. We vote on an interface, but no one verifies the identity of the voters, my grandmother could have pretended to be me!
What consequence can this crisis have on the Cesar ceremony which will take place in two weeks?
Some say that this resignation will ease tensions, but I don't think so. There is a big file and there are lots of small files in the big file. We fought to restore the image of this statuette but many things are not resolved and they will probably not be resolved on February 28. Unfortunately, I tell myself that the 2020 ceremony will have a bitter taste.
Cinema
César 2020: The slip of Florence Foresti on Roman Polanski reacts on Twitter
Cinema
César 2020: A poster in the form of a tribute to Anna Karina
- Caesar 2020
- Cinema