'Les Miserables' Wins Best Film at Cesar Awards, Polanski Takes Best Director

  

Feminist protestors disrupted the Friday ceremony, decrying the 12 nominations given to Roman Polanski's 'An Officer and a Spy.'

Roman Polanski's 'An Officer and a Spy'

Venice Film Festival

Les Misérables, Ladj Ly's blistering look at life in the Parisian banlieues, has won the 2020 Cesar Award for best film, beating out all comers, including Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Spy.

Les Misérables also picked up the best male newcomer Cesar for Alexis Manenti, playing a racist cop, the public Cesar, voted on by the French-going audience, and a best editing honor for Flora Volpelière.

But the French Film Academy ignored a street full of protestors and a furious army of online critics to give Polanski its top directing honor Friday night. The controversial director won the best directing Cesar for An Officer and a Spy. Polanski and co-writer Robert Harris also won the best adapted screenplay prize for the film and Pascaline Chavanne took the Cesar for best costume design.

Actress Adèle Haenel (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) looked visibly upset when Polanski's name was called as best director. She left the room. Several others followed.

Polanski was not at the gala to accept his honor, having pulled out of attending the ceremony, saying he feared a "public lynching" by feminist protestors if he went. On Friday, An Officer And A Spy producer Alain Goldman and star Jean Dujardin also announced they also wouldn't be attending the Cesars. Goldman told AFP “an escalation of inappropriate and violent language and behavior" towards Polanski was the reason.

Anaïs Demoustier won the first Cesar of her career, taking best actress for her role as a brilliant young philosopher assisting a local politician in crisis in Nicolas Pariser's Alice and the Mayor.

In a surprise win, Roschdy Zem took the best actor Cesar for his role as a police captain in Arnaud Desplechin's crime drama Oh Mercy!

Lyna Khoudri took the best female newcomer honor for  Mounia Meddour's Papicha, in which she plays a young student in 1990s Algiers determined to put on a fashion show despite the threat from Islamic extremists to shut it down. Papicha also took the best first film award for Meddour.

Jérémy Clapin and Guillaume Laurant won best adapted screenplay for their script to the Netflix animated feature I Lost My Body. 
The film also won best original score for Dan Levy, also known as the co-founder, with Olivia Merilahti, of Finnish-French indie pop band The Dø.

The legendary Fanny Ardant took home another Cesar, this time for best supporting actress for her role in La Belle Époque, Nicolas Bedos' romantic comedy about a man who tries to escape his life's problems by using a service that allows him to live in the past. The film also won best production design for Stéphane Rosenbaum.

Best supporting actor went to Swann Arlaud for his portrayal of a survivor of child sexual abuse in Francois Ozon's By the Grace of God.

Best Sound went to The Wolf's Call team of Nicolas Cantin, Thomas Desjonquères, Raphaël Mouterde, Olivier Goinard and Randy Thom.

Yolande Zauberman won best documentary for M, an investigation into sexual abuse in an ultra-orthodox community in Israel.

This year's Cesars have been dogged with controversy, much of it surrounding Polanski, whose An Officer and a Spy received 12 Cesar nominations, the most of any film this year.

One of France's leading feminist organizations, Osez le féminisme! (Dare feminism!) held a major protest outside the Salle Pleyel in Paris where the Cesar ceremony was held, calling on demonstrators to attend via a call on their website and Facebook page. They were joined by several other activist groups. They are outraged that the French academy is honoring Polanski, who they see as a sex criminal. The protestors, who carried banners inscribed with the names of filmmakers suspected of sexual assault or rape, including Polanski and Luc Besson, were dispersed by police.

The 87-year-old director and Oscar winner has been a fugitive from U.S. justice since 1978 for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. In recent years a number of other women have come forward accusing Polanski of sexual assault, most involving alleged incidents dating back decades. Polanski has denied all the new allegations against him.

Earlier this month, the French Film Academy's board of directors abruptly announced their collective resignation, complaining about the lack of diversity among this year's nominees and a general lack of transparency, particularly fiscal transparency, within the organization.

The board's resignation was triggered by an open letter to French newspaper Le Monde, signed by some 400 of the country's leading filmmakers, which called the Academy's leadership dysfunctional and "a vestige of an era that we would like to be over, that of an elitist and closed system."

The Academy said it would hold a general assembly of its members after this year's Cesars to elect a new board.