• Roman Polanski. "My image began to take shape with the death of Sharon Tate"
  • Polanski and Eastwood. Two monsters against time, against new times

The members of the management of the French Academy of Cinema announced on Thursday their "collective resignation" after criticism received in recent days for lack of parity as well as for the controversy over Roman Polanski and the nominations for his Cesar awards of the last director movie.

In a statement, the board of directors explained this resignation "to honor those who made films in 2019, to recover serenity and to keep the film party a party," in a direct allusion to the delivery ceremony of the Cesar awards next day 28.

It will be after that date when the general assembly of the institution will meet to completely renew its governing bodies .

And the new team will be responsible for the modification of the statutes and the "modernization measures" to which the outgoing board of directors had already committed.

Among these measures it is highlighted that both its general assembly and its board of directors respect a parity between women and men. So far there were eight women among the 47 members of the first and six of the 21 among those of the second.

The team that has now resigned also pledged to work so that there was equally gender balance among the 4,680 members of the Academy, who are the ones who nominate and vote for the best films of each year, and among which 65% are men.

The crisis in the academy reached a peak this Monday with the publication of a statement signed by about 200 actors, directors and film professionals, in which they charged against the institution because they considered that their will to reform was too short. In addition, they reproached him for not representing the entire plurality of French cinema.

They complained there of the opacity of the Academy accounts and of not having a voice in their operation or in the development of the delivery of the César awards that for weeks before its 45th edition has been surrounded by a strong controversy for the movie J'accuse.

Polanski's film, together with Les Misérables , by Ladj Ly, has the highest number of nominations, twelve in total. Something that has felt very bad among some feminist associations, which do not fail to emphasize that the Franco-Polish director has been accused of sexual assaults by several women.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • cinema
  • France
  • culture

Prizes Polemic in France at the head of Polanski Caesar nominations with The officer and the spy

CineMuere José Luis Cuerda, which is not a little

Cine 'Dolor y gloria' by Almodóvar, nominated for the César awards of French cinema for best foreign film