20th Prix Lumières Winners

There was a live streaming of the awards ceremony but suddenly ... disappeared! Grrr. Winners come from official twitter account. Nevertheless was okay to follow the winners via social media as was also watching live the Oscars Nominees Luncheon (lol). Official page administrators are not fast but eventually winners will be announced here, available only in French.

The ceremony was inaugurated by the first president of a Lumières ceremony, Claudia Cardinale. The big winner of the night is none other than 2014 Cannes, Mauritania's Oscar Submission, and Oscar Nominee Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako, who also won Best Director. The biggest most pleasant surprise is Céline Sciamma's Bande de Filles being honored with a special award, the Jury Special Prize!

Winners are in *BLUE.

Best Film
*Bande de filles (Girlhood), Céline Sciamma - Wins Jury Special Prize
La Famille Belier (The Belier Family), Eric Lartigau
Pas son genre (Not My Type), Lucas Belvaux
Saint Laurent, Bertrand Bonello
*Timbuktu, Abderrahmane Sissako Wins Best Film
Trois Cœurs (Three Hearts), Benoît Jacquot

Best First Film
*Les Combattants (Fighters), Thomas Cailley
Party Girl, Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis
Elle l’adore, Jeanne Herry
Chante ton Bac d’abord (We Did It in a Song), David André
Qu’Allah bénisse la France (May Allah Bless France!), Abd Al Malik
Tristesse Club (Fool Circle), Vincent Mariette

Best Foreign Film in French
C’est eux les chiens, Hicham Lasry, Morocco
*Deux jours une nuit (Two Days, One Night), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium
Fièvres, Hicham Ayouch, Morocco
L’Oranais, Lyès Salem, Algeria
Mommy, Xavier Dolan, Canada
Run, Philippe Lacôte, Ivory Coast

Best Director
Lucas Belvaux for Pas son genre
Bertrand Bonello for Saint Laurent
Benoît Jacquot for Trois Cœurs (Three Hearts)
Cédric Kahn for Vie Sauvage
Céline Sciamma for Bande de filles (Girlhood)
*Abderrahmane Sissako for Timbuktu

Best Screenplay
Thomas Lilti, Julien Lilti, Baya Kasmi and Pierre Chosson for Hippocrate (Hippocrates)
*Philippe de Chauveron and Guy Laurent for Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au bon Dieu?  (Serial (Bad) Weddings)
Audrey Diwan and Cedric Jimenez for La French
Jeanne Harry and Gaelle Mace for Elle l’adore
Thomas Bidegain and Bertrand Bonello for Saint Laurent
Stanislas Carre de Malberg and Victoria Bedos for La famille Bélier

Best Actress
Juliette Binoche in Sils Maria (Clouds of Sils Maria)
Emilie Dequenne in Pas son genre
Charlotte Gainsbourg in Trois Cœurs (Three Hearts) and Samba
Adèle Haenel in Les Combattants (Fighters) and L'Homme qu'on aimait trop (In the Name of My Daughter)
Sandrine Kiberlain in Elle l’adore
*Karin Viard in La Famille Bélier and Lulu, Femme Nue

Best Female Newcomer
*Louane Emera in La Famille Bélier
Joséphine Japy in Respire
Alice Isaaz in La Crème de la crème (Smart Ass)
Lou de Laage in Respire
Ariane Labed in Fidelio, l’odyssée d’Alice
Karidja Toure in Bande de filles (Girlhood)
Ana Girardot in Le Beau Monde (High Society) and La Prochaine fois je viserai le cœur (Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart)

Best Actor
Guillaume Canet in La prochaine fois je viserai le cœur (Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart) and L'homme qu'on aimait trop (In the Name of My Daughter)
Romain Duris in, Une nouvelle amie (The New Girlfriend)
Mathieu Kassovitz in Vie Sauvage
Pierre Niney in Yves Saint Laurent
Benoit Poelvoorde in Trois Cœurs (Three Hearts)
*Gaspard Ulliel in Saint Laurent

Best Male Newcomer
*Kevin Azais in Les Combattants (Fighters)
Thomas Blumenthal in La Crème de la crème (Smart Ass)
Bastien Bouillon in Le Beau Monde (High Society)
Jean-Baptiste Lafarge in La Crème de la crème (Smart Ass)
Didier Michon in Fièvres
Pierre Rochefort in Un beau dimanche (Going Away)
Marc Zinga in Qu’Allah benisse la France (May Allah Bless France!)

Best Cinematography
Yves Cape for Vie sauvage
*Rémy Chevrin for À la vie
Josée Deshaies for Saint Laurent 
Sofian El Fani for Timbuktu
Darius Khondji for Magic in the Moonlight
Arnaud Potier for Respire

Can say that I'm pleased with what I'm about to say, but, well, yes will give La Famille Bélier a try as probably will also collect honors at the Cesars. Sigh.

---///---
1/12/15
Today the foreign press based in Paris announced the nominations for the current edition of the award that honors French and Francophone films since 1996. Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent, Benoît Jacquot's Trois Cœurs and La Famille Bélier lead the pack with four (4) nominations each. But if great dramas dominate this year, the box office #1 film, La Famille Bélier, is also nominated as a good representative of comedy in French cinema.

Perhaps the most curious unusual situation in this year's nominations is that there are two actors nominated for Best Actor for the same role! Both Gaspard Ulliel and Pierre Niney play Yves Saint Laurent in the two film versions that were released last year.

As in recent years, Juliette Binoche has a nomination for a role and in a film I highly enjoyed but know that film is not for all audiences nor is her performance, still it is one of my favorite performances of the several films Juliette has released lately. But believe that this year has strong competition from great Charlotte Gainsbourg and even from younger actress Adèle Haenel.

Haven't seen Respire but soon will watch film at the online French film festival and even do I'm very curious about film, after today's nominations, became even more curious as want to know/understand why Mélanie Laurent got no nomination.

As we know the award is modeled after Hollywood's Golden Globes and as many believe the Golden Globes give hints for Oscar nominations, the Lumières give hints of what could come in France top awards, the Césars; but in the last 10 years, only 4 Lumières top award winners have gone to win César's Best Film. Award ceremony will be on February 2nd in l'Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris and not sure if will be streamed live but surely will learn winners via social media.

To check news and recently re-designed official site go here; to check nominations in English go here and in French go here.