After the Caesars, place for the Cleopatras? To protest against the absence of women in the Best Director category, Causette magazine decided to launch its own prize with only female directors.
On January 25, the Académie des César revealed the nominees for its next edition, which will be held on February 24.
The Innocent, directed by Louis Garrel, garnered 11 nominations, ahead of La Nuit du 12 (10 citations), En corps and Pacifiction (9 nominations).
If the Academy has named many different films, a controversy very quickly pointed the tip of its nose on a sensitive subject. The Collectif 50/50 notably pointed out the absence of women in the Best Achievement category.
For the first time since 2014, no female director is in this category. Forgotten Alice Diop, Rebecca Zlotowski, Alice Winocour, Mia Hansen Love or Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi.
You have to go back to the year 2000 to see a director who won an award in the best director category: To this day, Tonie Marshall is the only winner in this category among female directors, with the film Vénus Beauté Institut.
To address the lack of women in the directing category, the magazine chat proposes to launch the “Cleopatra”.
“Causette has decided to act. On an original idea of the ecologist deputy Marie-Charlotte Garin, we are launching the Cléopâtre, our own prize which will reward the best realization. It will consist of two prizes, one awarded by our readers trices, the other by our editorial staff”explains the magazine in an article published on January 27.
“And since women directors have obviously been forgotten this year at the Césars, we have chosen to put them in the spotlight by nominating only women at the Cleopatras. A bit like the Alice Guy Prize”adds Chat.
“I was hallucinated to see the list of nominees for the best director. So I joked, saying: ‘We’re going to do the Cleopatras instead of the Caesars.’ Knowing, of course, that it was the sculptor Caesar who gave his name to the prize, and not the Roman emperor. My collaborator then advised me to post this joke on Twitter. I didn’t think it was going so much take !”underlined the deputy Marie-Charlotte Garin.
The latter will be the honorary president of the jury (for the rest composed of the writing of Causette). The six nominated for the Cléopâtre Prize are: Alice Diop, Rebecca Zlotowski, Alice Winocour, Patricia Mazuy, Blandine Lenoir and Charlotte Le Bon.
you can vote via this link until February 10 to choose among the six directors. The two winners (Jury Prize and Audience Prize) will be announced on February 24, the day of the César ceremony.