21st Prix Lumières Winners

Was a true pleasure to be able to watch the Lumières awards ceremony live as film clips are always very enjoyable and Isabelle Huppert homage was fantastic with so many clips from films that I have seen and yes, could think of a few films that had no clip, after all we have to recall that she has an extensive filmography, just in IMDb there are 126 films listed for her acting career and we all know that data base could have omissions. Just in case, I should say that Huppert is one of my favorite actors in the world, so yes have seen almost everything with her.

Since the nominations imagined that a film by a female director in a French-Turkish co production could swept the awards and gee, I was correct! Mustang collected 4 awards out of the 6 nominations and most interesting was honored with the Best Film and Best First Films awards! Congratulations and yes, the honors are extremely well-deserved as Deniz Gamze Ergüven first feature film looks and feels like the work of a more experienced director and her non-actors female cast had mesmerizing performances. Bravo!!! Hope film does as good as here in the Cesar.

Winners are not yet at the official site but will be eventually here. Below you will find all the award categories and winners are in *BLUE.

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1/4/16
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 and this edition has Trois Souvenirs de ma jeunesse (7) leading the pack followed by Mustang (6) and La Belle Saison (5).

Perhaps you will agree thats 2015 was another excellent year for French film so imagine that the foreign press and later the French Academy will have a hard time selecting films that make the list as well as films out of the list.

This is one of the most outstanding list of great films as shows films that have continue to compete for an Oscar plus many more that already have collected multiple accolades in the festival circuit and that I hope will be in the Cesar nominations.

How can you decide between 2015 Cannes top award winner by Jacques Audiard, perhaps the most acclaimed French film outside France by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, and more classic great French cinema by Catherine Corsini, Xavier Giannoli, Arnaud Desplechin and Christian Vincent? Impossible. All are simply extraordinary cinema, good I have not to decide, sigh. Then you have highly controversial films that have stir morality in their local community like the film by Nabil Ayouch and list becomes quirky but a lot more interesting.

Still imagine that this year a film by a female director in a French-Turkish co production could and maybe will swept the awards; yes, talking about Mustang and can't wait to check first awards to find out if French industry has welcomed film as much as the international film industry. I''m very curious about this.

Best Film
La belle saison, Catherine Corsini
Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
L’hermine, Christian Vincent
Marguerite, Xavier Giannoli
* Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse, Arnaud Desplechin

Prix Heike Hurst for First Film
Bébé tigre, Cyprien Vial
Les deux amis, Louis Garrel
*Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Ni le ciel ni la terre, Clément Cogitore
La vie pure, Jérémy Banster
Vincent n’a pas d’écailles, Thomas Salvador

Best Francophone Film
À peine j’ouvre les yeux, Leyla Bouzid
L’année prochaine, Vania Leturcq
*Much Loved, Nabil Ayouch
Les Terrasses, Merzak Allouache
Le tout nouveau testament, Jaco van Dormael
La vanité, Lionel Baier

Best Director
Jacques Audiard for Dheepan
Catherine Corsini for La belle saison
*Arnaud Desplechin for Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse
Philippe Garrel for L’ombre des femmes
Xavier Giannoli for Marguerite
Maïwenn for Mon roi

Best Actress
Emmanuelle Bercot in Mon roi
Clotilde Courau in L’ombre des femmes
*Catherine Frot in Marguerite
Izïa Higelin in La belle saison
Isabelle Huppert in Valley of Love
Elsa Zylberstein in Un + une

Best Actor
Gérard Depardieu in Valley of Love
André Dussollier in 21 nuits avec Pattie
*Vincent Lindon inLa loi du marché and Journal d’une femme de chambre
Fabrice Luchini in L’hermine
Vincent Macaigne in Les deux amis
Jérémie Renier in Ni le ciel ni la terre

Female Revelation
Golshifteh Farahani in Les deux amis
Sara Giraudeau in Les bêtises
Baya Medhaffar in À peine j’ouvre les yeux
Lou Roy-Lecollinet in Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse
Sophie Verbeeck in À trois on y va
*Gunes Nezihe Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Elit Iscan, Tugba Sunguroglu et Ilayda Akdogan in Mustang



Male Revelation
Stany Coppet in La vie pure
Quentin Dolmaire in Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse
Alban Lenoir in Un Français
Félix Moati in À trois on y va
Harmandeep Palminder in Bébé tigre
*Rod Paradot in La tête haute

Best Screenplay
Catherine Corsini and Laurette Polmanss for La belle saison
Arnaud Desplechin and Julie Peyr for Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse
*Philippe Faucon for Fatima
Deniz Gamze Ergüven et Alice Winocour for Mustang
Xavier Giannoli for Marguerite
Arnaud et Jean-Marie Larrieu for 21 nuits avec Pattie

Best Cinematography
*David Chizallet for Mustang, Les Anarchiste and Je suis un soldat
Matias Boucard for L'affaire SK1
Irina Lubtchansky for Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse
Claire Mathon for Le dernier coup de marteau, Mon roi and Les deux amis
Arnaud Potier for Les Cowboys
Sylvain Verdet for Ni le ciel ni la terre

Best Score
Bruno Coulais for Journal d’une femme de chambre
Warren Ellis for Mustang
*Grégoire Hetzel for La belle saison and Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse
Mike Lévy, alias Gesaffelstein, for Maryland
Béatrice Thiriet for L’astragale
Jean-Claude Vannier for Microbe et Gasoil

Best Documentary (tie)
*Le bouton de nacre, Patricio Guzmán
Demain, Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent
Human, Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Sud Eau Nord Déplacer, Antoine Boutet
*L’image manquante, Rithy Pan
Nous venons en amis, Hubert Sauper



To check nominees at official site go here. Awards ceremony will be on February 8 at l'Espace Pierre Cardin 1 Avenue Gabriel in Paris.

Video of the 21ème Cérémonie des Lumières 2016