• Awards: Polanski gives up going to the César, harassed by feminist groups

To the traditional guests to the red carpet of the César remnants of French cinema this Friday, at a distance, more than a hundred people who, invited by feminist associations, protested the twelve nominations achieved by Roman Polanski with J'accuse (The officer and the spy).

Law enforcement turned to tear gas to contain their progress.

That the Franco-Polish director canceled his presence at the gala and that the entire team of the film announced today that he would not attend did not avoid a protest called weeks ago in rejection of the recognition granted to the filmmaker, on whom a new accusation of November weighs rape.

"We are here, even if Polanski is not there," the protesters chanted, mostly women, and accompanied by posters that read "Polanski rapist, guilty cinema, " or "Polanski, unpunished pedocriminal."

Associations like Osez le Féminisme! o Collectif Féministe Contre le Viol had recalled in recent days that the twelve nominations of the officer and the spy coincide with the number of women who accuse the filmmaker, 86 years old.

The protest took place in the Plaza de Ternes, near the Pleyel Hall, where at nine o'clock a gala begins in which he shares possibilities, with twelve other nominations, Les Misérables , by Ladj Ly.

Polanksi himself had announced Thursday that he would not attend , aware that his presence was not going to be welcomed.

"We already know how the night was going to unfold: activists threaten me with a public lynching . ... Promises to look more like a symposium than a French film festival to reward their greatest talents," he said in a statement sent to the AFP agency.

His team joined this Friday. Alain Goldman, producer of that tape on the Dreyfus case , said they did not want to accept that "the democratic vote of the 4313 members of the Academy is questioned by an opinion court, because these self-proclaimed judges do not approve the result."

The French Minister of Culture, Frank Riester, said today on the station "France Info" that although there is no need to "mix the works and artists", rewarding Polanski with César for best director would be a "bad symbol before the necessary take of conscience in the fight against violence, macho violence. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • cinema
  • France

French film academy The direction of the Cesar Awards resigns in block for Polanski's controversy and criticism for lack of parity

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

The richest How poor is the image of the rich man in the cinema