24/02/2024 - Winning six awards, Justine Triet’s film dominated the ceremony, where favourites including Sandra Hüller and Arieh Worthalter were recognised

Director Justine Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari with their César award for Best Original Screenplay (© ENS Louis Lumière)

It’s in a paradoxical atmosphere, between the denunciation of sexual violence (notably during the speech by Judith Godrèche) and the celebration of new talent in French cinema (as well as honourary awards for Christopher Nolan and Agnès Jaoui), that the 49th César Awards ceremony took place.  Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile] unsurprisingly came out on top, with the Palme d’Or winner triumphant in six categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Sandra Hüller), Best Original Screenplay (written by the director together with Arthur Harari), Best Supporting Actor (Swann Arlaud) and Best Editing (Laurent Sénéchal).

It is worth noting that all the major awards went to artists who had never won in the ceremony before, such as Arieh Worthalter who won the César for Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cédric Kahn
film profile]. 

The Animal Kingdom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Cailley
film profile] by Thomas Cailley won five technical awards (music, sound, cinematography, costume design, visual effects), while two went to Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dog [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Best First Feature Film and Most Promising Actor for Raphaël Quenard). Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated Four Daughters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] won in the Documentary category, and Chicken for Linda! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach in the Animated Feature Film category.

The full list of winners:

Best Film
Anatomy of a Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile] - Justine Triet

Best Director
Justine Triet - Anatomy of a Fall

Best Actress
Sandra Hüller - Anatomy of a Fall

Best Actor
Arieh Worthalter - The Goldman Case [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cédric Kahn
film profile]

Best Supporting Actress
Adèle Exarchopoulos - All Your Faces [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]

Best Supporting Actor
Swann Arlaud - Anatomy of a Fall

Most Promising Actress
Ella Rumpf - Marguerite's Theorem [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Novion
film profile] (France/Switzerland)

Most Promising Actor
Raphaël Quenard - Junkyard Dog [+see also:
trailer
film profile]

Best Original Screenplay
Justine Triet, Arthur Harari - Anatomy of a Fall

Best Adaptation
Valérie Donzelli, Audrey Diwan - Just the Two of Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valérie Donzelli
film profile]

Best First Feature Film
Junkyard Dog - Jean-Baptiste Durand

Best Documentary
Four Daughters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] - Kaouther Ben Hania (France/Tunisia/Germany/Saudi Arabia)

Best Animated Film
Chicken for Linda! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach (France/Italy)

Best Cinematography
David Cailley - The Animal Kingdom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Cailley
film profile] (France/Belgium)

Best Editing
Laurent Sénéchal - Anatomy of a Fall

Best Costume Design
Ariane Daurat - The Animal Kingdom

Best Set Design
Stéphane Taillasson - The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and The Three Musketeers: Milady (France/Spain/Germany/Belgium)

Best Visual Effects
Cyrille Bonjean, Bruno Sommier, Jean-Louis Autret - The Animal Kingdom

Best Sound
Fabrice Osinski, Raphaël Sohier, Matthieu Fichet, Niels Barletta - The Animal Kingdom 

Best Original Music
Andrea Laszlo de Simone - The Animal Kingdom

Best Fiction Short Film
L'attente - Alice Douard

Best Animated Short Film
Été 96 - Mathilde Bédouet

Meilleur court métrage documentaire
La mécanique des fluides - Gala Hernandez Lopez

Best Foreign Film
The Nature of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Monia Chokri
film profile] - Monia Chokri (Canada/France)

Honorary César
Agnès Jaoui

International César
Christopher Nolan

(Translated from French)