Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi thriller The Animal Kingdom and Justin Triet’s Oscar-nominated courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall rose to the top of the nominations at France’s Cesar awards.
The Animal Kingdom, a supernatural twist on a father-son drama that first premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, has been nominated for 12 awards including best film and will vie in that category against the five-time Academy-award nominated, Palme d’Or-winning Anatomy Of A Fall with 11 nominations, alongside Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces and Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dogs.
Cailley, Triet, Kahn and Herry also earned a nomination for best directing alongside veteran French filmmaker Catherine Breillat for another Cannes-premiering title Last Summer.
Scroll down for the full list of nominations
The Academy said it saw record 71.9% participation for its first round of voting in what has been a competitive year, with 3,375 of its 4,694 members taking part.
All Your Faces earned nine nominations and dominated the best supporting actress category with Leila Bekhti, Elodie Bouchez, Adele Exarchopoulos and Moiou Miou all earning nominations for their role in the drama about perpetrators and victims of crimes who meet each other as part of a French restorative justice plan. Galatea Bellugi was also nominated in the category for Junkyard Dog, a friendship drama that earned an impressive seven nominatio
In a year when box office hits such as Oppenheimer and Barbie have earned awards accolades and a slew of Oscar nominations, even French voters, who traditionally prefer to honour more arthouse fare, have opted to nominate films that have also been commercial successes.
The Animal Kingdom has sold over 1 million tickets (Studiocanal), Anatomy Of A Fall has earned 1.3 million admissions (Le Pacte) and All Your Faces (Studiocanal) 1.17 million.
Fillms that debuted at Cannes 2023 were well represented in the Cesar nominations. They include The Goldman Case, that revisits the 1975 trial of leftist radical Pierre Goldman, taking eight nominations,as well as Breillat’s Last Summer, Frederic Tellier’s biopic L’Abbe Pierre: A Century of Devotion, Valerie Donzelli’s Just The Two of Us, Anna Novion’s Marguerite’s Theorem and Iris Kaltenbach’s The Rapture.
France’s Oscar entry and Cannes best director winner Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste Of Things was nominated for best cinematography, set design and costumes but missed out in the acting, directing and best film categories.
Cesar members will choose from the 111 nominations in 24 categories in a second round of voting that runs from February 1 until February 23, just ahead of the awards’ 49th ceremony that will take place at Paris’ Olympia theatre where Christopher Nolan and Agnès Jaoui will receive honourary César awards.
Cesars extends ban on those accused of sexual assault
This year, the Cesar academy has said it is amplifying its efforts to condemn sexual assault in the industry and is banning anyone charged with “acts of violence” from all of its events moving forward. This is an extension of the ceremony ban announced last year on any nominees who have been accused or convicted of acts of sexual violence. This year it extends to events including the nominees dinner and producers award dinner in February, as well as prize ceremonies associated with schools and short films.
While keeping in mind “the presumption of innocence” the Cesar academy confirmed “ the accused or convicted person will not be invited to any of these events.”
However, if following the first two rounds of voting, academy members opt to award a César to anyone subject to legal proceedings, the talent will be able to receive the award but will not be welcome at the ceremony to accept the award on stage. Additionally, no one can make a speech on his or her behalf, nor can the accused be a part of any publicity of press coverage on the academy’s media platforms.
The academy said discussions will continue following the 2024 ceremony “in order to evaluate this new system and to study all possible ways of expanding it, while strictly respecting the rights of the persons involved”.
Last year’s decision was sparked by its removal of Forever Young actor Sofiane Bennacer from the shortlist for the ‘Revelations’ prize after he was accused of rape and sexual assault. He denied the allegations,
Sexual crimes in the French film world have been a hot topic of debate followinga bombshell documentary featuring accusations of sexual assault against Gerard Depardieu. Additionally, Samuel Theis, a potential nominee in the acting categories for his role in Anatomy Of A Fall, was accused of rape on the set of his upcoming feature film Je Le Jure.
Judith Godrèche recently called out director Benoît Jacquot for what she described as “an inappropriate relationship” when she was just 14 years old and he was 40, that inspired her A24-Arte series Icon Of French Cinema.
Cesar nominations 2024
Best film
- Anatomy Of AFall, dir. Justine Triet
- Junkyard Dog, dir. Jean-Baptiste Durand
- All Your Faces, dir. Jeanne Herry
- The Goldman Case, dir. Cédric Kahn
- The Animal Kingdom, dir. Thomas Cailley
Best directing
- Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall
- Catherine Breillat for Last Summer
- Jeanne Herry for All Your Faces
- Cédric Kahn for The Goldman Case
- Thomas Caillet for The Animal Kingdom
Best actress
- Marion Cotillard in Little Girl Blue
- Léa Drucker in Last Summer
- Virginie Efira in Just The Two of Us
- Hafsia Herzi in The Rapture
- Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall
Best actor
- Romain Duris in The Animal Kingdom
- Benjamin Lavernhe in L’Abbé Pierre: A Century of Devotion
- Melvil Poupaud in Just The Two of Us
- Raphaël Quenard in Yannick
- Arieh Worthalter in The Goldman Case
Best supporting actress
- Leila Bekhti in All Your Faces
- Galatea Bellugi in Junkyard Dogs
- Elodie Bouchez in All Your Faces
- Adèle Exarchopoulos in All Your Faces
- Miou Miou in All Your Faces
Best supporting actors
- Swann Arlaud in Anatomy of a Fall
- Anthony Bajon in Junkyard Dogs
- Arthur Harari in The Goldman Case
- Pio Marmaï in Yannick
- Antoine Reinartz in Anatomy of a Fall
Most promising actress
- Céleste Brunnquell in No Love Lost
- Kim Higelin in Consent
- Suzanne Jouannet in The Path of Excellence
- Rebecca Marder in Grand Expectations
- Ella Rumpf in Marguerite’s Theorem
Most promising actor
- Julien Frison in Marguerite’s Theorem
- Paul Kircher in The Animal Kingdom
- Samuel Kircher in Last Summer
- Milo Machado-Graner in Anatomy of a Fall
- Raphaël Quenard in Junkyard Dogs
Best original screenplay
- Justine Triet, Arthur Harari for Anatomy of a Fall
- Jean-Baptiste Durand for Junkyard Dogs
- Jeanne Herry for All Your Faces
- Nathalie Hertzberg, Cédric Kahn for The Goldman Case
- Thomas Cailley, Pauline Munier for The Animal Kingdom
Best adapted screenplay
- Valérie Donzelli, Audrey Diwan for Just The Two of Us
- Vanessa Filho for Consent
- Catherine Breillat for Last Summer
Best score
- Gabriel Yared for Just The Two of Us
- Delphine Malausséna for Junkyard Dogs
- Vitalic for Disco Boy
- Andrea Laszlo de Simone for The Animal Kingdom
- Guillaume Roussel for The Three Musketeers (part 1 : D’Artagnan/part 2 : Milady)
Best special effects
- Thomas Duval for Acid
- Lise Fischer, Cédric Fayolle for The Mountain
- Cyrille Bonjean, Bruno Sommier, Jean-Louis Autret for The Animal Kingdom
- Olivier Cauwet for The Three Musketeers (Part 1 and 2)
Best sound
- Julien Sicart, Fanny Martin, Jeanne Delplancq, Olivier Goinard for Anatomy of a Fall
- Rémi Daru, Guadalupe Cassius, Loic Prian, Marc Doisne for All Your Faces
- Erwan Kerzanet, Sylvain Malbrant, Olivier Guillaume for The Goldman Case
- Fabrice Osinski, Raphaël Sohier, Matthieu Fichet, Niels Barletta for The Animal Kingdom
Best editing
- Laurent Sénéchal for Anatomy of a Fall
- Francis Vesin for All Your Faces
- Valérie Loiseleux for Little Girl Blue
- Yann Dedet for The Goldman Case
- Lilian Corbeille for The Animal Kingdom
Best cinematography
- Simon Beaufils for Anatomy of a Fall
- Jonathan Ricquebourg for The Taste of Things
- Patrick Ghiringhelli for The Goldman Case
- David Cailley for The Animal Kingdom
- Nicolas Bolduc for The Three Musketeers (Part 1 and 2)
Best set design
- Emmanuelle Duplay for Anatomy of a Fall
- Angelo Zamparutti for Jeanne Du Barry
- Toma Baquéni for The Taste of Things
- Julia Lemaire for The Animal Kingdom
- Stéphane Taillasson for The Three Musketeers (Part 1 and 2)
Best costumes
- Jürgen Doering for Jeanne Du Barry
- Pascaline Chavanne for The Crime is Mine
- Tran Nuyên Khê for The Taste of Things
- Ariane Daurat for The Animal Kingdom
- Thierry Delettre for The Three Musketeers (Part 1 and 2)
Best animated film
- No Dogs or Italians Allowed dir. Alain Ughetto
- Chicken for Linda! dir. Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach
- Mars Express dir. Jérémie Périn
Best foreign film
- Kidnapped dir. Marco Bellocchio
- Fallen Leaves dir. Aki Kaurismaki
- Oppenheimer dir. Christopher Nolan
- Perfect Days dir. Wim Wenders
- The Nature of Love dir. Monia Chokri
Best first film
- Bernadette dir. Léa Domenach
- Junkyard Dogs dir. Jean-Baptiste Durand
- Vermines dir. Sebastien Vanicek
- The Rapture dir. Iris Kaltenbäck
- Vincent Must Die dir. Stéphan Castang
Best documentary
- Four Daughters dir. Kaouther Ben Hania
- Little Girl Blue dir. Mona Achache
- Our Body dir. Claire Simon
- Atlantic Bar dir. Fanny Molins
- On The Adamant dir. Nicolas Philibert
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