35th César Awards Winners

Winners are in *RED. Here are the nominations for this year awards.

Best Film
A l’Origine, Xavier Giannoli
Le Concert, Radu Mihaileanu
Les Herbes Folles, Alain Resnais
La Journee de la Jupe, Jean-Paul Lilienfeld
Rapt, Lucas Belvaux
*Un Prophete, Jacques Audiard
Welcome, Philippe Lioret

Best Director
*Jacques Audiard for Un Prophete
Lucas Belvaux for Rapt
Xavier Giannoli for A l’Origine
Philippe Lioret for Welcome
Radu Mihaileanu for Le Concert

Best First Film
*Les Beaux Gosses, Riad Sattouf
Le Dernier pour la Route, Philippe Godeau
Espion(s), Nicolas Saada
La Premiere Etiole, Lucien Jean-Baptiste
Qu’un Seul Tienne et les Autres Suivront, Lea Fehner

Best Actress
*Isabelle Adjani in La Journee de la Jupe
Domique Blanc in L’Autre
Sandrine Kiberlain in Mademoiselle Chambon
Kristin Scott Thomas in Partir
Audrey Tautou in Coco Avant Chanel

Best Supporting Actress
Aure Atika in Mademoiselle Cambon
Anne Consigny in Rapt
Audrey Dana in Welcome
*Emmanuelle Devos in A l’Origine
Noemie Lvosvsky in Les Beaux Gosses

Best Female Newcomer
Pauline Etienne in Qu’un seul tiene et les autres suivront
Florence Loiret-Caille in Je l’amais
Soko dans A l’Origine
Christa Theret in LOL
*Melanie Thierry in Le dernier pour la route

Best Actor
Yvan Attal in Rapt
Francois Cluzet in A l’Origine
Francois Cluzet in Le Dernier pour la Route
Vincent Lindon in Welcome
*Tahar Rahim in Un Prophete

Best Supporting Actor
Jean-Hugues Anglade in Persecution
*Niels Arestrup in Un Prophete
Joeystarr in Le Bal des Actrices
Benoit Poelvoorde in Coco Avant Chanel
Michel Vuillermoz in Le Dernier pour la Route

Best Male Newcomer
Firat Ayverdi in Welcome
Adel Bencherif in Un Prophete
Vincent Lacostein Les Beaux Gosses
*Tahar Rahim in Un Prophete
Vincent Rottiers in Je suis hereux que ma mere soit vivante

Best Foreign Film
Avatar, James Cameron, USA
*Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood, USA
Milk, Gus Van Sant, USA
J’ai Tue Ma Mere, Xavier Dolan, Canada
Panique au Village, Stepahne Aubier and Vicent Patar, Belgium, Luxembourg and France
The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke
Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

The award ceremony will be broadcast by Canal+ on February 27, 2010 and this year unless I find it online I will miss it again. Sigh. To check nominees in all categories please go here to download a pdf file available only in French.

I was really awaiting for these nominations as for me 2009 was not the best year for French cinema in general, but of course with the amazing impact of Un Prophete I believe I raised my standards for contemporary French cinema. So, there are a few nominated films that definitively have become must be watch for me, like the Kristin Scott Thomas movie and Romanian Radu Mihaileanu Le Concert among others.

I really do not have to tell you which French film is my favorite and well, I'm really glad that got the highest number of nominations so I know that has to be honored and will be. Yes I'm talking about A Prophet. From the nominated foreign films, The White Ribbon HAS to win.

The biggest surprise is The White Ribbon NOT winning, unbelievable even when Gran Torino is a great movie, but Haneke's film is much superior. No surprise with A Prophet winning in many categories where was nominated.