Their election at the head of the Academy is only a formality.
Véronique Cayla and Eric Toledano should be elected, on September 29, to the presidency of the Academy of Caesar, in a vote by video-conference.
No mystery about the outcome of this vote: they are the only ones to have stood as candidates.
The position is no longer a dream.
The flagship institution of French cinema had exploded in flight at the beginning of the year, undermined by accusations of self-reliance, opacity and lack of diversity.
But today she is trying to get up and this election would bring to its head two personalities "respected and very different" from the world of cinema, underlines the interim president, Margaret Menegoz.
Véronique Cayla, 70, has already had high responsibilities in the television and film industry (at the head of the National Cinema Center, then of Arte, which she left this summer).
Éric Toledano, 49, is a filmmaker and author of successful films made with Olivier Nakache, including "Intouchables", "Le sens de la fête" or "Hors Norms".
A succession of crises and controversies
Their task promises to be tough.
Since the beginning of the year, crises and controversies have been linked.
The first jolts were felt in mid-January, on the occasion of the dinner of the candidates for the nominations for the César of the best hope.
The Society of Film Directors (SRF) was then outraged that the Academy had refused two godmothers for hopes, the novelist Virginie Despentes and the director Claire Denis.
Supported by several directors and actors, she denounced "opaque and unworthy discriminatory actions".
Barely a month later, in a column published on February 11, nearly 400 personalities of French cinema including Omar Sy, Bertrand Tavernier, Michel Hazanavicius, Jacques Audiard, Céline Sciamma, Marina Foïs or Agnès Jaoui called for "in-depth reform" of the Academy of Caesar.
Among their main criticisms, "dysfunctions", "opacity of accounts" or statutes which "have not changed for a very long time" and are still based on "cooptation".
They also complain that the members of the Academy of Caesar have "no voice in the chapter, or in the operations" of the Academy and the structure that governs it, the APC, "or in the conduct of the ceremony".
The Caesar of "shame!"
Forty-eight hours later and two weeks before the ceremony, the management of the Academy, including its president Alain Terzian, announced his "collective resignation".
"This collective resignation will make it possible to proceed with the complete renewal of the management", continues the César press release.
In the process, producer Margaret Menegoz was appointed to the post of interim president pending a general meeting to take place the following April.
But this change of cast does not ease tensions.
The ceremony causes a new storm.
The César for best achievement is awarded to Roman Polanski for his film "J'accuse", while the latter is targeted by accusations of rape.
This award arouses the anger of several personalities, including Adèle Haenel, who has become a symbol of the French-style #MeToo movement, which is leaving the Salle Pleyel.
The image of the shattering departure of actress Adèle Haenel, shouting "Shame", had marked the evening.
This Caesar given to Polanski symbolizes, for feminists, the sexism that continues to poison French cinema and its difficulty in reforming, after the #MeToo wave of denunciations of acts of harassment and sexual violence born in the United States and with few repercussions in France.
Mandatory parity
Since then, while some questioned their existence, the Caesars have undertaken a major renovation.
On July 9, the Academy announced the adoption of a broad reform of its statutes, placing particular emphasis on gender equality.
The flagship measure of this reform: entrust the presidency to a "tandem" of both sexes.
The "integral parity" is also established in the general assembly of the association, its board of directors and its office.
The operation of the Caesar is greatly simplified.
The 4,313 members of the Academy, these personalities and professionals of the 7th art who award the awards, can now stand and elect their representatives for four years in the association which organizes the ceremony.
Previously, members integrated these bodies mechanically (after receiving an Oscar, for example) or by being co-opted by members already present.
The Caesars modernize ... but keep Polanski
Nevertheless, the controversies did not take long to resurface.
In mid-September, the new general assembly of the Academy was elected.
But, when the list of 182 new directors was unveiled, the presence of 18 "historic" members sparked unease.
Among them, we find Alain Terzian, the former patron of the César, and Roman Polanski, authorized to sit as an Oscar winner (for "The Pianist" in 2003).
The reactions are lively and immediate.
The filmmaker Andréa Bescond, very committed against sexual violence against children, expresses her anger on her Instagram account: "We are discovering that historical members remain, including Roman Polanski. NO !!"
The director of "Tickles" clarified that she would not participate in this "masquerade" if these "old statutes" did not change.
Faced with the bronca, the director finally announced that he would not participate in the decisions of the new Academy of Caesar and therefore in the vote on Tuesday.
View this post on Instagram
@academiedescesar, we ask that only those present at the votes be nominated.
You want renewal, historic members don't have to stay in this new energy.
It is a masquerade in which we cannot participate.
Thank you for reacting, for changing these old statutes, otherwise, it will be without us.
A post shared by Andréa Bescond (@andrea_bescond) on Sep 14, 2020 at 11:57 pm PDT
With AFP
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