The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the Nuit des César ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Ministry of Culture. The nationally televised award ceremony is held in Paris each year in February. The exact location has changed over the years. It is an initiative of the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, which was founded in 1975.
Emmanuelle Béart is a French film and television actress, who has appeared in over 60 film and television productions since 1972. An eight-time César Award nominee, she won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1986 film Manon des Sources. Her other film roles include La Belle Noiseuse (1991), A Heart in Winter (1992), Nelly and Mr. Arnaud (1995), Mission: Impossible (1996) and 8 Women (2002).
Vanessa Chantal Paradis is a French singer, model and actress. Paradis became a star at the age of 14 with the international success of her single "Joe le taxi" (1987). At age 18, she was awarded France's highest honours as both a singer and an actress with the Prix Romy Schneider and the César Award for Most Promising Actress for Jean-Claude Brisseau's Noce Blanche, as well as the Victoires de la Musique for Best Female Singer for her album Variations sur le même t'aime. Her most notable films also include Élisa (1995) alongside Gérard Depardieu, Witch Way Love (1997) opposite Jean Reno, Une chance sur deux (1998) co-starring with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, Girl on the Bridge (1999), Heartbreaker (2010) and Café de Flore (2011). Her tribute to Jeanne Moreau at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival during which they sang in duet "Le Tourbillon" became notable in French popular culture. In 2022, she was nominated for the Molière Award for Best Actress for her performance in the play Maman.
Jean-Jacques Beineix was a French film director best known for the films Diva and Betty Blue. His work is regarded as a prime example of the cinéma du look film movement in France.
Marion Cotillard is a French actress. She has appeared in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions and her accolades include an Academy Award from two nominations, a British Academy Film Award from two nominations, two César Awards from eight nominations, a European Film Award from two nominations, a Golden Globe Award from four nominations, a Lumières Award from two nominations and a Chopard Trophy. She became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2010 and was promoted to Officer in 2016, the same year she was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour. She has served as a spokeswoman for Greenpeace since 2001. Cotillard was the face of the Lady Dior handbag from 2008 to 2017, and since 2020, she has been the face of the fragrance Chanel No. 5.
Yolande Moreau is a Belgian comedian, actress, film director and screenwriter. She has won three César Awards from four nominations.
Virginie Efira is a Belgian and French actress. She had her first leading role in the romantic comedy It Boy (2013). Efira subsequently received critical praise for her performance in the comedy drama In Bed with Victoria (2016), for which she received a Magritte Award for Best Actress as well as a César Award for Best Actress nomination. She then appeared in Paul Verhoeven's psychological thriller Elle (2016), the drama An Impossible Love (2018), the comedy drama Sibyl (2019) and the black comedy Bye Bye Morons (2020). In 2023, she won a César Award for Best Actress for Paris Memories (2022).
The 14th César Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, honoured the best French films of 1988 and took place on 4 March 1989 at the Théâtre de l'Empire in Paris. The ceremony was chaired by Peter Ustinov and hosted by Pierre Tchernia. Camille Claudel won the award for Best Film.
Mélanie Laurent is a French actress and filmmaker. The recipient of two César Awards and a Lumières Award, she is an accomplished actress in the French film industry. Internationally, Laurent is best known for her roles in Inglourious Basterds (2009), Now You See Me (2013), Operation Finale (2018) and 6 Underground (2019).
Nalin Kumar Pandya, popularly known as Pan Nalin, is an Indian filmmaker, best known for directing award-winning movies like Samsara (2001), Valley of Flowers (2006), Angry Indian Goddesses (2015) and the semi-autobiographical Chhello Show (2021). His debut feature Samsara (Miramax) was worldwide critical and commercial triumph and went on to win awards like Best First Feature Film at Durban International Film Festival, "Grand Jury Prize – Special Mention" at AFI Fest, Special Jury Award at Santa Barbara International Film Festival and "Most Popular Feature Film" at Melbourne International Film Festival in 2002. Since then Nalin has been actively making fiction and non-fiction movies which have been coproduced with countries like India, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the USA. Nalin's movies have been distributed worldwide.
Yolande Zauberman is a French film director and screenwriter.
Adèle Haenel is a French actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two César Awards from seven nominations and one Lumières Award from two nominations.
Would You Have Sex with an Arab? is a feature-length documentary film by French director Yolande Zauberman. It premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, and released in France on 12 September 2012.
Mona Achache is a French-Moroccan film director, screenwriter, and actress. She wrote and directed the feature films The Hedgehog (2009), Les Gazelles (2014), Valiant Hearts (2021), and Little Girl Blue (2023). She also directed the Netflix documentary The Women and the Murderer (2021). In 2024, she was nominated for the César Award for Best Documentary Film for Little Girl Blue.
Swann Arlaud is a French actor. He has appeared in films such as Romantics Anonymous (2010), Elles (2011), Les Anarchistes (2015), The Wakhan Front (2015), Baden Baden (2016), Bloody Milk (2017), By the Grace of God (2019), Valiant Hearts (2021), and Anatomy of a Fall (2023). Arlaud has won three César Awards. He won the César Award for Best Actor for Bloody Milk in 2018, and the César Award for Best Supporting Actor for both By the Grace of God in 2020 and for Anatomy of a Fall in 2024.
The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president. The Palme d'Or went to the South Korean film Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho; Bong became the first Korean director to win the award.
Ladj Ly is a French film director and screenwriter. He won a Jury Prize in Cannes Film Festival for Les Misérables in 2019. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
Bye Bye Morons is a 2020 French comedy drama film written and directed by Albert Dupontel. The film stars Virginie Efira, Albert Dupontel and Nicolas Marié.
Wonder Boy is a 2019 French documentary film directed by Anissa Bonnefont covering the personal and professional life of Olivier Rousteing, the creative director of Balmain, as he searches for his biological parents. The film was first shown on the television channel Canal+ on 16 October 2019 and was released in French theatres on 27 November.
The Belle from Gaza is a 2024 French documentary film written, shot, co-edited, co-produced and directed by Yolande Zauberman. The film follows Zauberman's pursuit of a trans woman who traveled on foot to Tel Aviv from Gaza.
