Yahoo News César Awards: Dominik Moll’s ‘The Night Of The 12th’ Sweeps Board Winning Best Film & Director – Full List
UPDATE, writethru: Dominik Moll’s The Night Of The 12th swept the board at the 48th edition of France’s César awards in Paris on Friday evening.
The film, which was nominated in 10 categories, also won best male newcomer for its star Bastien Bouillon, best-supporting actor for Belgian actor Bouli Lanners as well as best sound and adapted screenplay.
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The investigative drama world premiered in Cannes’ non-competitive Cannes Première section last May.
Bouillon plays a police detective who becomes obsessed with a case involving a complex female murder victim in a small town close to the city of Grenoble in the foothills of the French Alps.
Louis Garrel’s comedy The Innocent, which led the nominations making it into 11 categories, won best original screenplay for the director and co-writers Tanguy Viel and Naïla Guiguet as well as best supporting actress for Tár star Noemie Merlant.
Outside the main awards, the evening included an Honorary Career César for David Fincher with Seven and Fight Club star Brad Pitt putting in a surprise appearance to present him with the trophy.
Other highlights included a performance by Charlotte Gainsbourg of her late father Serge Gainsbourg’s 1974-hit song Comme Un Boomerang with French rapper young star Dinos.
Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani, who is currently completing Berlinale jury duty with Kristen Stewart, also made an appearance via a recorded video address speaking in support of the Woman, Life Freedom protest in her native Iran.
This year’s edition unfolded amid debate about the future of the awards and ceremony which has struggled to garner viewership for pay-TV giant Canal+ in recent years, even though the signal is made available to everyone for the evening.
A poor showing for female representation in the top categories of Best Film and Director at the nomination stage also sparked debate.
In spite of recent efforts by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema which oversees the awards to introduce more transparency, parity and diversity within its ranks in recent years, not a single female director was nominated in the Best Director category.
Forever Young by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was the only female-directed feature in the running for Best Film. The picture was mired in controversy, however, after it emerged that co-star Sofiane Bennacer had been indicted on allegations of rape and violence by four women.
Films by female directors generating buzz ahead of the nomination announcement had included Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories, which got one nomination, and Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children which did not make it into a single category.
Ironically, the evening ended up being very much about women with Alice Diop and Virginie Efira both making a point of name-checking the female directors in the room as they picked up trophies for Best First Film for Saint Omer and Best Actress for Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories respectively.
In the technical prizes, Irene Dresel made César history when she became the first woman to win Best Original Score for Eric Gravel’s Full Time. She also gave a rousing shout-out to all the other women in the room and the film industry in general.
Moll’s film, in the meantime, was produced by three women: Caroline Benjo, Barbara Letellier and Carole Scotta at production and distribution company Haut et Court alongside Simon Arnal as associate producer.
Benjo highlighted the theme of violence against women running through The Night Of The 12th.
“In the film, two characters share their observation that there is something going wrong between men and women. It’s a euphemism summing up the count of violence taking place against women,” she said.
The fact that two men had led the project, Benjo suggested was a sign that the MeToo debate had moved on with solutions to be found through women and men working together for progress.
“I say long live women but also long live the men who join their struggle because it’s a struggle we need to fight together,” she said to applause.
Outside of the debates, Friday’s ceremony was widely heralded as a success by the local media, with just one glitch when a climate change protestor appeared on stage early on in the evening, wearing a t-shirt bearing the slogan “We have 761 days left”.
The broadcast cut away from the live show while the woman was removed to resume 30 seconds later as if nothing had happened.
The full list of 2023 Cesar Awards:
BEST FILM
The Night Of The 12th
BEST DIRECTOR
Dominik Moll, The Night Of The 12th
BEST ACTRESS
Virginie Efira, Paris Memories
BEST ACTOR
Benoit Magimel, Pacifiction
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Noemie Merlant, The Innocent
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Bouli Lanners, The Night Of The 12th
BEST FEMALE NEWCOMER
Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Forever Young
BEST MALE NEWCOMER
Bastien Bouillon, The Night Of The 12th
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Louis Garrel, Tanguy Viel, Naïla Guiguet, The Innocent
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gilles Marchand, Dominik Moll, The Night Of The 12th
BEST DEBUT FEATURE
Saint Omer, Alice Diop
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
My Sunny Maad, Michaela Pavlátová
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Returning To Reims (Fragments), Jean-Gabriel Périot
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Artur Tort, Pacification
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Laurens Ehrmann, Notre Dame On Fire
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Irene Dresel, Full Time
BEST SOUND
François Maurel, Olivier Mortier, Luc Thomas, The Night Of The 12th
BEST SET DESIGN
Christian Marti, Simone – The Journey Of The Century
BEST EDITING
Mathilde van de Moortel, Full Time
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Gigi Lepage, Simone – The Journey Of The Century
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
La Vie Sexuelle De Mamie, Urška Djukić and Emilie Pigeard
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Maria Schneider, 1983, Elisabeth Subrin
BEST SHORT FILM
Partir Un Jour, Amélie Bonnin
BEST FOREIGN FILM
The Beasts, Rodrigo Sorogoyen
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