• 'Violanski'.Campaña against Polanski in France

The film director Roman Polanski will not attend the César gala tomorrow, as announced hours before the start of the ceremony of the great festival of French cinema, the equivalent in France of the Oscars or the Goya. Feminist groups are planning to protest during the gala against Polanski and to denounce that the French Film Academy continues to recognize a director accused of rape by several women. He denies the accusations.

"We know in advance the development of the evening. The activists already threatened me with a public lynching . Some announce protests in front of the Pleyel room (where the ceremony will be held in Paris)," the director denounced in a statement sent to the AFP agency.

Polanski, who regrets having to make this decision, does not want to face " a self-proclaimed court of opinion willing to trample on the principles of the rule of law so that the irrational triumphs fully again." He also does it to "protect" his family, his wife, actress Emmanuelle Seigner, and their children, who have been subjected to "insults and insults."

The director of The Pianist will be on everyone's lips, despite being the great absentee of the gala. The nomination for 12 César awards of his film J'accuse (The officer and the spy) has caused a great controversy in France, following the latest accusations of rape against the director.

"The media and social networks present our 12 nominations as a gift from the Academy Directorate, an authoritarian gesture that would have led to his resignation. The secret vote of 4,313 professionals who are the only ones deciding the nominations is ignored, and the more than 1.5 million viewers who went to see the movie "in France, Polanski defended himself.

French actress and photographer Valentine Monnier accused Polanski in November of mistreating and raping her in 1975 in a chalet in Switzerland after skiing when she was 18 years old.

The I accuse of Monnier against Polanski had a great echo. Feminist organizations denounced that the director was dealing with the promotion of the film to clean his own image. They believe that Polanski sees himself as a victim of a media-feminist plot .

The film's premiere and its 12 Caesar nominations have rekindled the debate over whether the artist can be separated from his work. Feminist organizations have conducted a campaign against Polanski in recent weeks and boycotted the film's premiere. They have also asked the more than 4,000 members of the academy not to vote for the Polanski film at the César awards.

Polanski, a fugitive from US justice since 1977 for the violation of Samantha Geimer when she was 13 years old, has been accused in recent years by several women of raping them on different dates. He denies all the accusations.

"The activists agitate the number of 12 women who would have attacked half a century ago, these fantasies of unhealthy spirits are now treated as proven facts. A lie repeated 1,000 times that becomes true," said Polanski.

The feminist organization Osez feminisme! He considered it "crazy" that Polanski speaks of "public lynching" and "fantasies of unhealthy spirits" in his statement. They reminded him that in France there is the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression.

"Polanski is a fugitive who is still looking for American justice . Let him take a plane to the United States if he wants to respect the principles of the rule of law," said a feminist organization on Twitter, who believes that "Polanski instrumentalizes the Dreyfus case to get the victim while he is the executioner. "

Polanski's film bears in French the title of the famous allegation that French writer Émile Zola published in 1898 in the newspaper L'Aurore in favor of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish military man falsely accused of treason for anti-Semitic motives. Dreyfus was degraded and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island, in French Guiana . In 1906 it was shown that the sentence had been unfair and was rehabilitated. This case divided France deeply.

Adèle Haenel, nominated for best actress at the César awards for her role as the young Heloïse in Portrait of a woman on fire , believes that "to recognize Polanski is to spit in the face of all the victims. That is to say that raping women does not it's so bad. " Haenel was the first prominent French actress to report sexual abuse in French cinema. The actress publicly denounced director Christophe Ruggia for sexual harassment and inappropriate touching, which began when she was 12 years old.

The officer and the spy part as a favorite to the César with 12 nominations, including the best film, best direction, best actor (Jean Dujardin) and best supporting actor (Louis Garrel and Grégory Gadebois). He is followed with 11 La Belle Époque nominations by Nicolas Bedos and Les Miserables by Ladj Ly , a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the film that represented France at the Oscars. Portrait of a woman on fire from Céline Sciamma has 10 nominations and Thanks to Dio s de François Ozon and Especiale s ( Hors normes , in their original title) they are tied with eight nominations.

The film Pain and Glory by Pedro Almodóvar is nominated in the category of best foreign film. The Manchego director will compete with Parasitos , of Bong Joon-Ho; Joker, by Todd Phillips; Once upon a time in ... Holllywood , by Quentin Tarantino; The traitor , by Marco Bellocchio; The young Ahmed , by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne; and Lola vers la mer , by Laurent Micheli. Parasites is the favorite. 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.

The 45th edition of the César gala, which will be presented by actress and humorist Florence Foresti , is one of the most controversial in recent years. Not only because of Polanski's controversy, but also because of the collective resignation in mid-February of the members of the direction of the French Film Academy after criticism of the lack of parity within the academy. 65% of its members are men.

On Thursday, a group of actors and directors denounced in an open letter published by the newspaper Le Parisien the lack of racial diversity in French cinema. They ask for a greater presence of colored actors in main roles and in the nominations for awards.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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