A great duel in perspective. it symbolizes the renewal and audacity of French cinema. The Animal Kingdom and Anatomy of a Fall dominate the nominations for the 2024 César Awards. Thomas Cailley’s fantastical dystopia tops Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or by a hair, twelve nominations against eleven.

Followed by I Will Always See Your Faces (9 nominations), The Goldman Trial (8 nominations) and Junkyard Dog (7 nominations). This quinté will compete for the king trophy for best film on February 23.

Another notable fact is that the majority of contenders for the statuette for best director are women. Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall), Catherine Breillat (Last Summer), Jeanne Herry (I Will Always See Your Faces) will face Thomas Cailley, winner of the Louis Delluc and Lumières prize, and Cedric Kahn for The Goldman Trial. Enough to perhaps shake up one of Cesar’s most enduring statistics. The Academy has only awarded this trophy once to a woman, to Tonie Marshall for Vénus Beauté (institute), in 2000.

These César nominations conclude a prosperous week for Justine Triet who won three Lumières awards and collected five Oscar nominations. A historic feat. The trial film fits, like The Animal Kingdom, into all the major categories: screenplay, acting, editing.

Sandra Hüller is the favorite in the best actress category. The ambiguous novelist of Anatomy of a Fall, accused of having pushed her husband into the void, faces Marion Cottillard for the docu fiction Little Girl Blue, Lea Drucker for Last Summer, Virginie Efira under the influence in Love and the forests and Hafsia Herzi for Le Rapissement. On the other hand, no nomination for Catherine Deneuve, stunning Bernadette Chirac in the comedy dedicated to the former first lady.

Among the actors, Romain Duris as a father who wants to save his wife from a metamorphosis leaves with a head start in The Animal Kingdom. But the youth is in ambush with the astonishing Raphael Quenard by Yannick (also in the running for short film and revelation but for Dog from the Junkyard). Melvil Poupaud (Love and the Forests), Benjamin Lavernhe (L’Abbé Pierre) and Arieh Worthalter in The Goldman Trial.

The supporting male role category will be dominated by bar aces. Swann Arlaud and Antoine Reinartz will replay their duel between prosecutor and lawyer from Anatomy of a Fall. They will face their own screenwriter Arthur Harari, who plays Me Georges Kiejman in The Goldman Trial. Anthony Bajon (Scrapyard Dog) and Pio Marmaï (Yannick) complete the lucky few.

LISTEN TO THE CLUB CULTURE EPISODE

Among women, the actresses of I will always see your faces occupy four of the five available slots. Choosing between Adèle Exarchopoulos, Leïla Bekhti, Élodie Bouchez and Miou-Miou foreshadows a difficult dilemma. Galatea Bellugi will try to make the little music of Junkyard Dog heard.

At the revelations, it will be a more family affair. The brothers Paul and Simon Kircher, noticed in The Animal Kingdom and Last Summer, are in the running, as is the precocious Milo Machado-Graner, a wonderful kid plagued by doubt in Anatomy of a Fall. The essential Raphael Quenard is there, as is the mathematician Julien Frison (Marguerite’s Theorem). Her partner Ella Rumpf is selected for the female revelation side alongside Suzanne Jouannet (The Royal Road), Kim Higelin (Consent), Rebecca Marder (Great Expectations), Céleste Brunnquell (Her Father’s Daughter).

Also read: Raphaël Quenard, an actor not there by chance

As at the Oscars, the Césars were disinterested in The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, on track in technical categories but which does not impress its director, awarded at Cannes, nor its stars Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel. Popular films are, once again, not at the party. The diptych The Three Musketeers slips into six categories but garners nothing for its impressive cast led by Vincent Cassel and Eva Green. Not much for Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom either.

Invited to receive an honorary César, Christopher Nolan could leave with a second compression. Oppenheimer is in pole position to collect the statuette for best foreign film. His opponents will be films discovered at Cannes: Dead Leaves, The Abduction, Perfect Days and Simple as Sylvain. Barbie and Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon were not favored by the Academy.

The films of the year 2023 motivated the members of the César Academy. The record participation rate for this first round stood at 71.9%, or 3,375 votes. The second round of voting for the 4,694 voting members will open Thursday February 1 and close on Friday February 23 at 4 p.m., a few hours before the opening of the 49th César Ceremony which will reveal the lucky winners of the 2024 César Awards.