THE NAMES AND SURPRISES OF THE CESAR 2023

The opportunity to honor several feature and short films but also screenwriters, directors, editors...

The big winner is of course “La Nuit du 12” by Dominik Moll, with six Césars including best film, best director and best adapted screenplay. “L'Innocent” by Louis Garrel, “Pacifiction” by Albert Serra, “A Plein temps” by Eric Gravel and “Simone” by Olivier Dahan won two Césars respectively. "November" by Cédric Jimenez and "En corps" by Cédric Klapisch left empty-handed.

It was therefore La Nuit du 12 which emerged as the big winner of the 48th Cesar ceremony. With 10 nominations, Dominik Moll's film won 6 awards on Friday 24 February. A success for this thriller retracing the investigation of two police officers from the Grenoble PJ

The triumph of "The night of 12"

Filmed mainly in the Alps, the film tells the investigation of two Grenoble police officers on a feminicide, the murder of a young girl. A story inspired by real events that received the most prestigious of awards: the César for best film. It succeeds Xavier Giannoli's Lost Illusions.

To adapt Pauline Guéa's book, 18.3 - a year at the PJ, Dominik Moll immersed himself for a week in the offices of the Grenoble judicial police. Many scenes were shot in Grenoble but also at the Eybens velodrome or even in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. The film, released in theaters on July 13, 2022, also received the César for best direction, best sound and the best fit. To complete the list, Bouli Lanners and Bastien Bouillon respectively won the Césars for best actor in a supporting role and best male hope.

The filmmaker signs with this thriller his second César for best director after that won with Harry, a friend who wishes you well released in 2001.

On the male performer side , Benoît Magimel won the César for best actor for the second year in a row, with "Pacification - Torment on the islands". Never seen.

The Franco-Belgian actress Virginie Efira was crowned the César for best actress for "Revoir Paris", by Alice Winocour.

The headliner of the film Simone, Olivier Dahan's biopic, was not nominated in the category of best actress. The film (nearly 2.5 million spectators in theaters) had to settle for two categories – best sets and best costumes.

Gérard Depardieu, indicted for rapes which he denies, did not have the honor of being selected either. However, in 2022, he was showing remarkable and very different films, such as Maigret by Patrice Leconte and Les Volets Verts, by Jean Becker, without forgetting, at the end of 2021, Robuste, by the young director Constance Meyer.

The surprise

The presence had been kept secret and David Fincher himself was surprised. After a nice speech by Virginie Efira who exposed us to her traumas following the films of the American director, she announced that she would leave her place to David Fincher's "Partner in Crime". And it was Brad Pitt who arrived on stage, all smiles. The actor starred in three films by the master, “Seven”, “Fight Club” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.

"Hello, my name is Brad Pitt, I have shot three David Fincher films, I am a survivor", first declared the star, all smiles, then telling how much the director of "Gone Girl" was a perfectionist . “Legend says he can do 90 takes of the same scene. It's wrong, it was 92, "he said in particular mockingly. The room drank in his words, time was suspended.

David Fincher then went on stage, thanked the Academy, his relatives.

"I salute the culture of French cinema, your commitment to a cinema that reflects what we are smallest and simplest, and not just our heroic aspirations when we put on tights," said Fincher.

Palmares

- Best film: "The Night of 12" by Dominik Moll

- Best Director: Dominik Moll for "La Nuit du 12"

- Best actress: Virginie Efira in "Revoir Paris"

- Best actor: Benoît Magimel in "Pacification - Torment on the islands"

- Best Supporting Actress: Noémie Merlant in "L'Innocent"

- Best actor in a supporting role: Bouli Lanners in "La Nuit du 12"

- Best female hope: Nadia Tereszkiewicz in "The Almond Trees"

- Best male hope: Bastien Bouillon in "La Nuit du 12"

- Best first film: "Saint Omer" by Alice Diop

- Best Original Screenplay: Louis Garrel, Tanguy Viel, Naïla Guiguet for "L'Innocent"

- Best foreign film: "As Bestas" by Spaniard Rodrigo Sorogoyen

- Best adaptation: Gilles Marchand and Dominik Moll for "La Nuit du 12"

- Best animated film: "My Afghan family" by Michaela Pavlatova