Cesar Awards: ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Named Best Picture

The 49th Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Justine Triet‘s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall emerging as the big winner.

The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.

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Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.

The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography trophy and a slew of wins in craft categories like best sound, original score, costumes and special effects.

Coming into Friday night’s awards show, Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning Anatomy of a Fall and The Animal Kingdom led the field for the 2024 Cesar Awards. Anatomy of a Fall picked up 11 Cesar noms and The Animal Kingdom – which bowed in Cannes and portrays people literally turning into animals because of mutations  – grabbed 12 nods.

Both were nominated in the best film and best director categories. In other acting categories, Arieh Worthalter won best actor for his starring role in Cédric Kahn’s courtroom drama The Goldman Case, and Adèle Exarchopoulos won for best supporting actress for her star turn in All Your Faces.

Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan received an honorary Cesar for lifetime achievement at this year’s ceremony in Paris after being introduced during the gala ceremony by Cotillard.

“It’s always a thrill to open a film here. I have always really liked the French audiences and this love of cinema that you have has always had an impact on me,” Nolan told the Cesar ceremony when accepting his honor onstage. The other honorary Cesar on the night went to French actress, screenwriter and director Agnes Jaoui.

Oppenheimer — which dominated at the BAFTA Awards with seven trophies, including best film — lost out in the best foreign film category to the Canada-France co-production The Nature of Love by director Monia Chokri.

Chokri was surprised her Quebec-set drama won over Oppenheimer, and in typical Canadian fashion apologized to Nolan while accepting the trophy.

The emotional highpoint at the Cesars this year was Judith Godrèche, an actress who has accused two French directors of assaulting her as a teenager, courageously addressing the French film industry and urging her peers to tackle the issue of sexual violence.

“Let’s have the courage to say out loud what we know deep down. Let’s not embody heroines onscreen, only to find ourselves hiding in the woods in real life; let’s not embody revolutionary or humanist heroes, only to wake up in the morning knowing that a director has abused a young actress, and say nothing,” Godrèche told the respectfully silent Cesar audience during a six-minute address preceded by a standing ovation as she came on stage.

A complete list of winners follows:

Best Film

Anatomy of a Fall

Best Director

Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

Best Actress

Sandra Hüller for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Actor

Arieh Worthalter for The Goldman Case

Best Supporting Actress

Adèle Exarchopoulos for All Your Faces

Best Supporting Actor

Swann Arlaud for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Newcomer Actress

Ella Rumpf for Marguerite’s Theorem

Best Newcomer Actor

Raphaël Quenard for Junkyard Dog

Best Original Screenplay

Justine Triet, Arthur Harari for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Adapted Screenplay

Valerie Donzelli, Audrey Diwan for Love and the Forests

Best Original Score

Andrea Laszlo de Simone for Animal Kingdom

Best Sound

Fabrice Osinkski, Raphael Sohier, Matthieu Fichet, Niels Barletta for Animal Kingdom

Best Cinematography

Davio Cailley for Animal Kingdom

Best Editing

Laurent Sénéchal for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Costume Design

Ariane Daurat for Animal Kingdom

Best Production Design

Stéphane Taillasson for The Three Musketeers (Part 1: D’Artagnan / Part 2: Milady)

Best Visual Effects

Cyrille Bonjean, Bruno Sommier, Jean-Louis Autret for Animal Kingdom

Best Short Film

L’Attente directed by Alice Douard, produced by Marie Boitard, Alice Douaro

Best Animated Feature

Chicken for Linda! directed by Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach, produced by Marc Irmer, Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron

Best Animated Short: Summer 96, directed by Mathilde Bedouet

Best Documentary

Four Daughters directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha

Best Documentary Short Film

Fluid Mechanics, directed by Gala Hernandez Lopez

Best First Feature

Junkyard Dog directed by Jean-Baptiste Ourand, produced by Anaïs Bertrand

Best Foreign Film

The Nature of Love directed by Monia Chokri

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