France’s Oscars, the César Awards, unveils its 2023 nominees

La Nuit du 12 (top left) and L'innocent (bottom left) lead the nominations for the César Awards 2023 - Copyright Canal+ - Les Films des Tournelles - Haut et Court

By David Mouriquand

Published on 25/01/2023 - 14:24

Comments

Louis Garrel’s L’Innocent (The Innocent) and Dominik Moll’s procedural thriller La Nuit du 12 (The Night of the 12th) lead the race

The César Academy has unveiled the films selected for its 48th awards ceremony, which will be held in a month's time.

Louis Garrel’s L’Innocent (The Innocent) and Dominik Moll’s procedural thriller La Nuit du 12 (The Night of the 12th), which recently won the 19th Prix Jacques Deray for Best French police thriller, lead the race at the César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars.

Nominated for 11 Césars, L’Innocent stars Louis Garrel, Roschdy Zem and Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Tár ’s Noemie Merlant, and had its world premiere out of competition at Cannes.

Close behind is La Nuit du 12, nominated for 10 Césars, which also opened as part of Cannes’ Premiere section. It stars Bastien Bouillon and Bouli Lanners as two cops trying to solve a femicide.

Other contenders include Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s Les Amandiers (Forever Young), Cedric Jimenez’s Novembre (November) and Alice Diop’s Saint Omer.The latter, for which Alice Diop earned the Lion of the Future and the Golden Lion at Venice, is nominated for four awards, including Best First Film.

The César for Best Foreign Film includes Lukas Dhont’s Close, Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO and Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, all of which were nominated yesterday for Best International Feature at the Oscars. Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s As Bestas and Tarik Saleh’s fantastic Boy from Heaven round off the category.

Following the Oscars’ example, no women have been nominated in the Best Director category, and there is only one film directed by a female filmmaker in the running for Best Film - Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s Les Amandiers. Claire Denis, whose Berlin Silver Bear-winning film Avec amour et acharnement (Both Sides of the Blade) and Cannes Grand Prize-winning Stars at Noon, didn’t receive a single nomination and stands as this year’s biggest snub.

The 48th edition of the César Awards will take place on 24 February. An honorary award will be bestowed to David Fincher, the American director of Zodiac, Fight Club and Se7en.

Here’s the full list of nominations for the 2023 Cesar Awards:

Best Film

Les Amandiers (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi)
En corps (Cédric Klapisch)
L’Innocent (Louis Garrel)
La Nuit du 12 (Dominik Moll)
Pacifiction (Albert Serra)

Best Director

Cédric Klapisch (En corps)
Louis Garrel (L’Innocent)
Cédric Jimenez (Novembre)
Dominik Moll (La Nuit du 12)
Albert Serra (Pacifiction)

Best Actress

Fanny Ardant (Les Jeunes Amants)
Juliette Binoche (Ouistreham)
Laure Calamy (À plein temps)
Virginie Efira (Revoir Paris)
Adèle Exarchopoulos (Rien à foutre)

Best Actor

Jean Dujardin (Novembre)
Louis Garrel (L’Innocent)
Vincent Macaigne (Chronique d’une liaison passagère)
Benoît Magimel (Pacifiction)
Denis Ménochet (Peter Von Kant)

Best Supporting Actress

Judith Chemla (Le Sixième enfant)
Anaïs Demoustier (Novembre)
Anouk Grinberg (L’Innocent)
Lyna Khoudri (Novembre)
Noémie Merlant (L’Innocent)

Best Supporting Actor

François Civil (En corps)
Bouli Lanners (La Nuit du 12)
Micha Lescot (Les Amandiers)
Pio Marmaï (En corps)
Roschdy Zem (L’Innocent)

Best Female Newcomer

Marion Barbeau (En corps)
Guslagie Malanda (Saint Omer)
Rebecca Marder (Une Jeune fille qui va bien)
Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Les Amandiers)
Mallory Wanecque (Les Pires)

Best Male Newcomer

Bastien Bouillon (La Nuit du 12)
Stephan Crepon (Peter Von Kant)
Dimitri Doré (Bruno Reidal, confession d’un meurtrier)
Paul Kircher (Le Lycéen)
Aliocha Reinert (Petite Nature)

Best Foreign Film

As Bestas (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
Close (Lukas Dhont)
Boy From Heaven (Tarik Saleh)
EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)

Best First Film

Bruno Reidal, confession d’un meurtrier (Vincent Le Port)
Flacon Lake (Charlotte Le Bon)
Les Pires (Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret)
Saint Omer (Alice Diop)
Le sixième enfant (Léopold Legrand)

Best Animated Film

Ernest et Célestine: le voyage en Charabie (Jean-Christophe Roger and Julien Chheng)
Ma famille afghane (Michaela Pavlatova)
Le Petit Nicolas - Qu’est-ce qu’on attend pour être heureux? (Amandine Fredon and Banjamin Massoubre)

Best Documentary