César Awards 2014 Nominations
The César Awards have always been an important event for the French film industry but almost always the nominations and hence the winners were not that celebrated outside France, sometimes not even there. It seems that this year’s nominations try to change a bit that bad reputation, and hopefully will be more interesting for the cinephiles too.
The academy announced today the nominations for the 39th César Awards. The winner of Cannes 2013 Palme d’Or Abdellatif Kechiche and his film La Vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2 is the frontrunner with 8 nominations in all major categories, among them Best Film, Best Director, Best Adaptation, Best New Actress for Adèle Exarchopoulos and Best Actress for Léa Seydoux. The biggest surprise would be Alain Guiraudie’s last film L’Inconnu du Lac who has been praised from the majority of the critics and also received 8 nominations, Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best New Actor for Pierre Deladonchamps and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Patrick D’Assumçao.
Roman Polanski comes close second with 7 nominations for his La Vénus à la Fourrure, from the major categories it is nominated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adaptation, Best Actor for Mathieu Amalric and Best Actress for Emmanuelle Seigner. We should also mention that Asghar Farhadi’s Le Passé got 5 nominations, Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress for Bérénice Bejo.
The Best Actress category is probably the most interesting since apart from Léa Seydoux, Emmanuelle Seigner and Bérénice Bejo, Fanny Ardant (Les Beaoux Jours) and Catherine Deneuve (Elle S’En Va) are also nominated. Finally for all the Nouvelle Vague aficionados the slapstick comedy La Fille du 14 Juillet directed by Antonin Peretjatko is nominated for Best First Film. The poster of the César Awards is dedicated to Patrice Chéreau and one of his best known films La Reine Margot. The ceremony of the 39th César Awards will be held on 28th February.
