LIGHTNING FOR CESAR 2020 OR

THE COLLECTIVE RESIGNATION OF MANAGEMENT

Much has been written about this Cesar ceremony. A few days before the event, which will take place on February 28, the management of the César Academy announces its unanimous resignation.

This collective resignation will make it possible to proceed to the complete renewal of the direction ”, indicates the Academy chaired since 2003 by the producer Alain Terzian.

In a press release, the institution says it wants to "honor those who made the cinema in 2019, to regain serenity and make the cinema festival a celebration."

She specifies that the General Assembly will meet after the ceremony to elect a new directorate, under the aegis of the CNC. The aim of this upheaval: "to implement the announced modernization measures"

This shock announcement comes after a column published Monday evening in "Le Monde", where some 400 personalities including Omar Sy, Bertrand Tavernier, Michel Hazanavicius, Jacques Audiard, Céline Sciamma, Marina Foïs or Agnès Jaoui have called for a "thorough reform" of the Academy of Caesar.

Among their grievances, "dysfunctions", "opacity of the accounts" or statutes which "have not evolved for a very long time" and are still based on "cooptation".

If Polanski received a Caesar ...

It must be said that the Academy is at the heart of several controversies, including the nomination in 12 categories of Roman Polanski. The filmmaker is charged with rape and sexual assault and was even convicted in 1977.

Several feminist associations denounce the appointment of the filmmaker and accuse the Academy of protecting the man, however convicted. Associations like Dare feminism! call for a gathering the evening of the ceremony in front of the Salle Pleyel in Paris.

Another affair also shakes up the ceremony. On the occasion of the traditional dinner of revelations, which brings together the nominees of female and male hopefuls, two godmothers are refused by the Academy. Virginie Despente and Claire Denis are considered illegitimate and not enough media to play this role.

Finally, a forum relaunches the debate on the Academy and its practices deemed "elitist and closed" by cinema professionals. Published in Le Monde, the text calls for an in-depth reform and an overhaul of the modes of governance. They denounce the mode of operation of the Academy and the opacity of the management.

On Twitter, the Minister of Culture, Franck Riester, announced that he had asked the CNC to support the Academy "in drafting the association's new statutes, in consultation with the professionals concerned and in compliance with these principles. "He adds" This renewed governance must make it possible to represent French cinema in all its aesthetics and diversity ".

The ceremony, which will be held in Salle Pleyel on February 28, will reward French films released in 2019. Besides J'accuse by Roman Polanski, La Belle Époque by Nicolas Bedos and Les Misérables by Ladj Ly are in the running for the prize for the best movie.

Florence Foresti will officiate as mistress of ceremony.