As always, expectations are high in competition, but the ceremony organized by the French Film Academy this time has particular challenges: to serve as the starting point for a new era that leaves behind the impact of Covid-19 on the seventh art and overcome the turbulent memories of its last two editions.
In 2020, controversy and protests assailed the Césars with the laureate Roman Polanski as the protagonist, after receiving the best director award for The officer and the spy, despite the accusations of sexual abuse against him.
While last year the actress Corinne Masiero stole the show with her nude to denounce the closure of cultural spaces in the face of the pandemic.
For the Academy the challenge is high, if we remember that until recently it was branded as elitist and opaque, but it does have weapons to seduce tonight, starting with the charismatic Australian Cate Blanchett, who will receive the Caesar of Honor from Isabelle Huppert for her illustrious career, endorsed by two Oscars and three Golden Globes.
Tributes are also expected to French cinema’s “tough, ugly guy,” Jean Paul Belmondo, who said goodbye in September at the age of 88, and to rising star Gaspard Ulliel, whose sudden death in a skiing accident a month ago surprised and mourned the world of celluloid.
Returning to the list for the awards, Xavier Giannoli’s proposal based on the novel by Honoré de Balzac Lost Illusions has the accompaniment of connoisseurs, although the story of the young poet Lucien and his Parisian adventure in 19th century France could have worthy rivals in more than one category.
The “rare” film of love between humans and machines, Titane, arrives at the evening with pedigree, although it is much more than that, by the young director Julia Ducournau, who was awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year, and the heartbreaking plot of L’Événement, a feature film by Audrey Diwan, winner of the Golden Lion in Venice.
Other interesting films with clear options to conquer one or more Césars are the musical drama Annette, by Léos Carax, which has received 11 nominations, and Aline, a biopic by Valérie Lemercier inspired by the life of the famous Canadian artist Celine Dion, to whom the Academy included in 10 of the categories in competition.
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