34th César Awards Nominations

Today the Academy announced the nominations and here they are for the main categories.

Best Film
Entre Les Murs
Il y a Longtemps que je t’aime
Mesrine
Paris
Le Premier Jour du Reste de ta vie
Séraphine
Un conte de Noël

Best First Film
Home, Ursula Meier
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime, Philippe Claudel
Mascarades, Lyes Salem
Pour elle, Fred Cavaye
Versailles, Pierre Schoeller

Best Foreign Film
Eldorado, Bouli Lanners
Gomorra, Matteo Garrone
Into the wild, Sean Penn
Le silence de Lorna, Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne
There will be blood, Paul Thomas Anderson
Two lovers, par James Gray
Valse avec Bachir, Ari Folman

Best Director
Rémi Bezançon for Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Laurent Cantet for Entre les murs
Arnaud Desplechin for Un conte de Noël
Martin Provost for Séraphine
Jean-François Richet for Mesrine

Best Actress
Catherine Frot in dans Le crime est notre affaire
Yolande Moreau in dans Séraphine
Kristin Scott Thomas in dans Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
Tilda Swinton in Julia
Sylvie Testud in Sagan

Best Actor
Vincent Cassel in Mesrine
François-Xavier Demaison in Coluche, l'histoire d'un mec
Guillaume Depardieu in Versailles
Albert Dupontel in dans Deux jours à tuer
Jacques Gamblin in Le premier jour du reste de ta vie

Best Supporting Actress
Jeanne Balibar in Sagan
Anne Consigny in Un conte de Noël
Edith Scob in L'heure d'été
Karin Viard in Paris
Elsa Zylberstein in Il y a longtemps que je t'aime

Best Supporting Actor
Benjamin Biolay in Stella
Claude Rich in Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera
Jean-Paul Roussillon in Un conte de Noël
Pierre Vaneck in Deux jours à tuer
Roschdy Zem in La fille de Monaco

Best Female Newcomer
Marilou Berry in Vilaine
Louise Bourgoin in La fille de Monaco
Anaïs Demoustier in Les grandes personnes
Déborah François in Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Léa Seydoux in La belle personne

Best Male Newcomer
Ralph Amoussou in Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera
Laurent Capelluto in Un conte de Noël
Marc-André Grondin in Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet in La belle personne
Pio Marmai in Le premier jour du reste de ta vie

To check nominees in all categories go here, available only in French and you have to download the file. The awards ceremony will be on February 27 and will be broadcasted live on Canal+.

There are many movies here that I’m simply “dying” to be able to see; still I’m happy that I have seen a few and so glad that in the Best Actress category I find actresses with truly remarkable roles Sylvie Testud, Tilda Swinton and Kristin Scott Thomas, but I also know that probably the winner will be Yolande Moreau.

I’m surprised to find Two Lovers in the best foreign film as I forgot about this movie, but definitively now I have to see this movie; soon I’ll be watching Le Silence de Lorna that absolutely is a must be seen and look forward to watch Eldorado.

As the Academy president says, 2008 was an extraordinary year for French cinema and definitively I do agree but proof comes that seven (7) films are nominated for Best Film this year and if you consider the Best First Film nominees, then you have twelve (12) films that are honored this year with nominations for the top awards. This is just fantastic for those -like me- that simply love French Cinema. If I want to enjoy the awards ceremony I have to do my best effort to be able to watch quite a few movies in about four weeks, that’s a task that I sort of accomplished for the Oscars and now I have to do for the Césars.