A Caesar trophy, carried at arm's length, during the 40th edition in 2015. -
Jacques Brinon / AP / SIPA
The members of the Académie des César are called upon to vote for the films released in 2020, under the direction of a new team inducted after the controversial award of the director's prize awarded to Roman Polanski last year.
The rooms having been closed 162 days last year, some professionals are still wondering if this price reduction is legitimate.
Others believe that this remains a good way to continue to make the 7th Art exist while waiting for the reopening of theaters.
A ceremony in search of meaning.
A few hours before the announcement of the nominations this Wednesday, February 10, and a month before the rewards scheduled for March 12, the Cesar will have to deal with half of the films scheduled for 2020 which could not be released in closed theaters 162 days over the year.
Another emergency: to forget the calamitous ceremony of 2020 which had deeply out of date them.
Will the Caesars be able to become indispensable again in 2021?
Cinema professionals, interviewed by
20 Minutes,
are divided.
"Too few films exploited for too little time"
“The public did not have time to see most of the films and the professionals will not be able to discover them in theaters either.
It would have been elegant to remove the ceremony this year to avoid the sense of self-esteem that the cinema world is too often accused of, ”says Axel Brucker, festival organizer and former owner of the Mac-Mahon cinema, a major venue of Parisian cinephilia.
The director and former critic Thierry Klifa does not share this point of view: “There is something to defend, even beyond the competition.
People are working hard on the Caesars, the new governance, the mistress of ceremony Marina Foïs, with her co-authors Blanche Gardin and Laurent Laffite.
Benjamin Biolay who will conduct an orchestra, all the remitters who have already agreed to participate.
"
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The new governance?
In 2021, the Academy was taken over by a tandem made up of the former patron of Arte and the CNC Véronique Cayla and Eric Toledano (co-director of
Hors Normes
and Le
Sens de la fête
), with claimed intention to "move away from the polemics which vampirize the Caesar".
Not easy.
"Why condemn films to a double sentence?
"
Those who have a chance to be there are the most benevolent.
"It is normal that films which have taken the risk of being released in theaters can compete," explains
Jean-Paul Salomé, director of
La Daronne
in contention for several awards
, to
20 Minutes
.
It would be to condemn them to a double penalty to suppress the Caesars this year.
Like the other contestants, he will know on February 10 if his film is nominated or not, for the ceremony.
However, some believe that the 125 feature films released last year do not all start on equal terms.
The 4,292 voters (all film professionals) can catch up with those they would have missed by connecting to a platform and discover works whose output has been truncated such as
DNA
by Maïwenn or
Rag Boy
by Nicolas Maury.
"Useless for some, essential for others"
Some productions are tricky.
Albert Dupontel, who confided to
20 Minutes that he
did not like competitions when
Adieu les cons was released,
only deposited his film on the platform late and for a single viewing per voter.
This jeopardizes his chances of being rewarded, because he only stayed on for ten days.
What does it matter for the director, who has never set foot at the ceremony, where he has been awarded three times.
Too bad on the other hand for her team, in particular the sublime Virginie Efira who could have claimed a Caesar.
"Only the powerful can afford to spit on the Caesar!"
Exclaims Patricia Bardon, whose
Nana et les filles du bord de mer
was released in theaters before being distributed on VOD platforms (iTunes and CanalVOD, OrangeVOD and FilmoTV).
She funded her participation through crowdfunding and is thrilled to compete.
“For me, who am both director and producer, the Césars offer an incomparable showcase.
Even if I do not receive a nomination, the fact that my film was on the platform allows my work to be known.
His only frustration is not being able to know how many voters will have seen his film.
She hopes that the number of views will eventually be disclosed.
"Create a desire for cinema"
"The award ceremony at least gives the opportunity to talk about cinema again," said Anne Guimet, general delegate of the Enlightenment, the French equivalent of the Golden Globes.
This emphasizes films that bring attention to the public, including internationally.
It's useful because it makes you want to.
And creating a desire for cinema is the opposite of self-esteem.
"
However, is this the right method to continue to motivate the public?
"I believe that all this energy deployed would have been better placed in a targeted fight for the reopening of theaters," declares Emmanuelle Spadacenta, editor-in-chief of the specialist magazine
Cinemateaser
.
Such a ceremony will seem superfluous in the current context, when the profession is going badly.
"And the scale of its divisions is likely to resurface, both on February 10 at the time of appointments that some will dispute and on March 12 at the end of a ceremony forced to forget the one that preceded it.
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