22nd Prix Lumières Winners

Awards ceremony will start soon. Winners will be updated as they're announced.

With a very-fast awards ceremony the foreign press based in Paris had their award ceremony and believe is no surprise to find Elle in the lead with three (3) awards, 3 top awards: film, director and actress.

Divines also got 3 awards and La Mort de Louis XIV followed with 2.  But the award that pleases me the most is Céline Sciamma winning Best Screenplay!  Let's hope she returns to direct films soon as I really love her films.

No, I don't think these awards will influence the Academy voters; but there are predictions that assign the Cesar for Best Actress to Isabelle Huppert and I hope they are right.  Perhaps Divines could also collect honors at Cesar 2017 after all we can forget that film won the Camera d'Or at 2016 Cannes, therefore most likely the Academy will bestow honors upon film -probably Best Debut Film.

Winners are in *BLUE.

Best Film
*Elle, Paul Verhoeven
La mort de Louis XIV (Last Days of Louis XIV), Albert Sierra
Nocturama, Bertrand Bonello
Les Ogres (Ogres),  Léa Fehner
Rester Vertical (Staying Vertical), Alain Guiraudie
Une vie (A Woman's Life),  Stéphane Brizé

Best First Film
Apnée, Jean-Christophe Meurisse
La Danseuse (The Dancer), Stéphanie di Giusto
Diamant noir (Dark Inclusion), Arthur Harari
*Divines, Houda Benyamina
Gorge cœur ventre (Still Life), Maud Alpi
Mercenaire (Mercenary), Sacha Wolff

Best Francophone Film
Belgica, Felix van Groeningen, Belgium and France
La fille inconnue (The Unknown Girl, Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium and France
*Hedi, Mohammed Ben Attia, Tunisia and Belgium
Juste la fin du monde (It's Only the End of the World), Xavier Dolan, Canada and France
Mimosas, Oliver Laxe, Spain, France Morocco and Qatar
Les Premiers, les Derniers (The First, The Last), Bouli Lanners, Belgium and France

Best Animated Film
La jeune fille sans mains (The Girl Without Hands), Sébastien Laudenbach
Louise en hiver (Louise by the Shore), Jean-François Laguionie
*Ma vie de Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini), Claude Barras
La tortue rouge (The Red Turtle), Michael Dudok de Wit
Tout en haut du monde (Long Way North), Rémi Chayé

Best Documentary
Le bois dont les rêves sont faits (The Woods Dreams Are Made Of), Claire Simon
Dernières nouvelles du cosmos (Last News from the Cosmos), Julie Bertuccelli
Merci Patron!, François Ruffin
La sociologue et l’ourson, Etienne Chaillou and Mathias Théry
Swagger, Olivier Babinet
*Voyage à travers le cinéma français (Journey Through French Cinema), Bertrand Tavernier

Best Director
Bertrand Bonello for Nocturama, Bertrand Bonello
Stéphane Brizé for Une vie (A Woman's Life)
Léa Fehner for Les Ogres (Ogres)
Alain Guiraudie for Rester Vertical (Staying Vertical)
Albert Serra for La mort de Louis XIV (Last Days of Louis XIV)
*Paul Verhoeven for Elle

Best Actress
Judith Chemla in Une vie (A Woman's Life)
Marion Cotillard in Mal de pierres (From the Land of the Moon)
Virginie Efira in Victoria
*Isabelle Huppert in Elle
Sidse Babett Knudsen in La fille de Brest
Soko in La Danseuse (The Dancer)

Best Actor
Pierre Deladonchamps in Le fils de Jean (A KId)
Gérard Depardieu in The End
Nicolas Duvauchelle in Je ne suis pas un salaud (A Decent Man)
*Jean-Pierre Léaud in La mort de Louis XIV (Last Days of Louis XIV)
Omar Sy and James Thierrée in Chocolat
Gaspard Ulliel in Juste la fin du monde (It's Only the End of the World)

Most Promising Actress
*Oulaya Amamra and Déborah Lukumuena in Divines
Paula Beer in Frantz
Lily Rose Depp in La Danseuse (The Dancer)
Manal Issa in Peur de rien (Parisienne)
Naomi Amarger and Noémie Merlant in Le ciel attendra (Heaven Will Wait)
Raph in Ma Loute (Slack Bay)

Most Promising Actor
*Damien Bonnard in Rester Vertical (Staying Vertical)
Corentin Fila and Kacey Mottet Klein in Quand on a 17 ans (Being 17)
Finnegan Oldfield in Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)
Toki Pilioko in Mercenaire (Mercenary)
Sadek in Tour de France
Niels Schneider in Diamant noir (Dark Inclusion)

Best Screenplay
David Birke for Elle
Léa Fehner, Catherine Paillé and Brigitte Sy for Les Ogres (Ogres)
Emilie Frèche and Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar for Le ciel attendra (Heaven Will Wait)
Alain Guiraudie for Rester Vertical (Staying Vertical)
François Ozon for Frantz
*Céline Sciamma for Ma vie de Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini)

Best Cinematography
Christophe Beaucarne for Mal de pierres (From the Land of the Moon)
Benoît Debie for La Danseuse (The Dancer)
Antoine Héberlé for Une vie (A Woman's Life)
Léo Hinstin for Nocturama
Pascal Marti for Frantz
*Jonathan Ricquebourg for La mort de Louis XIV (Last Days of Louis XIV)

Best Score
Sophie Hunger for Ma vie de Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini)
*Ibrahim Maalouf for Dans les forêts de Sibérie (In the Forests of Siberia)
Laurent Perez del Mar for La tortue rouge (The Red Turtle)
ROB for Planétarium (Planetarium)
Philippe Rombi for Frantz
Gabriel Yared for Juste la fin du monde (It's Only the End of the World)

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12/16/16
A few moments ago 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 Elle by Paul Verhoeven, A Woman's Life by Stéphane Brizé, Staying Vertical by Alan Guiraudie, Frantz by François Ozon and Last Days of Louis XIV by Albert Sierra leading the pack with four (4) nominations each.

More than 80 films were reviewed by the 100+ film journalists from more than 20 countries; Lumières Academy members had the opportunity to also watch films in the Cinando /Le Marché du Film de Cannes video library, which registered more than 800 visits.  All theses figures are testimony of the interest that French Cinema generates around the world.

Maybe you'll agree that 2016 was not an outstanding year for French cinema as with a very-few exceptions most films leaned to the usual-average side of the scale.  Still worth mentioning that none of the six Best Film nominated films or nominated directors (they are the same) have won the award before and more relevant, this year selection is diverse with not one film standing out. 

Best actress category as always is interesting and this year has two of my most favorite actresses competing for the award, Marion Cotillard in From the Land of the Moon and Isabelle Huppert in Elle; but most interesting is the nomination of Soko in The Dancer and Lily-Rose Depp in same movie for Most Promising Actress (Female Revelation).

To Check the nominees at the official site go here.   Awards ceremony will be on January 30, 2017  at Théâtre de la Madeleine in Paris.