26/02/2006

The favourites won as expected at the 2006 Cesars, French cinema’s annual awards, held Saturday evening in Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet. The raid on the trophy cabinet by Jacques Audiard’s The Beat My Heart Skipped [+see also:
trailer
film profile] brought eight awards (Best Film, Director, Supporting Actor, Female Newcomer, Adaptation, Cinematography, Editing and Music), pushing the rest into the shadows.

The event turned out to be a landslide for a filmmaker who is as loved by his peers as he is by the public (The Beat My Heart Skipped has had 1m admissions in France). 53 years old and the director of four features, Audiard has had an inexorable rise to the top, along the way picking up three Cesars in 1995, including Best First Film, for See How They Fall, six nominations in 1997 for A Self-Made Hero (also winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes in 1996) and three Cesars out of nine nominations in 2002 for Read My Lips [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Picking up eight of the 10 Cesars for which it was nominated, The Beat My Heart Skipped (produced by Why Not Productions with the support of France 3 Cinema and sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams) has added to a fine collection of prizes, which includes the BAFTA for Best Film Not In The English Language.

The 2006 edition of the Cesar Awards was also marked by the triumph of experienced actors with, no surprise, the Best Actress award going to Nathalie Baye for Le petit Lieutenant [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Baye won her second statuette for Best Actress 23 years after winning for La balance.

Another second win was achieved by Michel Bouquet for The Last Mitterand. The 80 year-old Bouqet won the same prize four years ago for his turn in How I Killed My Father [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The Cesar for Best First Film went to Hubert Sauper for his documentary Darwin’s Nightmare.

Also of note is the rise of Belgian actress Cécile de France, who received a Cesar for her supporting role in The Russian Dolls [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; and the two technical awards (Best Art Direction and Costume Design) for Patrice Chéreau’s Gabrielle [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

The 2006 winners:

Best Film
The Beat My Heart Skipped - Jacques Audiard

Best Actor
Michel Bouquet - The Last Mitterrand

Best Actress
Nathalie Baye - Le petit Lieutenant

Best Supporting Actor
Niels Arestrup - The Beat My Heart Skipped

Best Supporting Actress
Cécile de France - The Russian Dolls

Best Director
Jacques Audiard - The Beat My Heart Skipped

Best First Film
Darwin’s Nightmare - Hubert Sauper

Best Foreign Film
Million Dollar Baby - Clint Eastwood

Best Female Newcomer
Lin-Dan Pham - The Beat My Heart Skipped

Best Male Newcomer
Louis Garrel - Regular Lovers

Best Original Screenplay
Radu Mihaileanu and Alain-Michel Blanc - Live and Become

Best Adaptation
Jacques Audiard and Tonino Benacquista - The Beat My Heart Skipped

Best Soundtrack
Alexandre Desplat - The Beat My Heart Skipped

Best Art Direction
Olivier Radot - Gabrielle

Best Cinematography
Stéphane Fontaine - The Beat My Heart Skipped

Best Sound
Laurent Quaglio and Gérad Lamps - March of the Penguins

Best Editing
Juliette Welfling - The Beat My Heart Skipped

Best Costume Design
Caroline de Vivaise - Gabrielle

Best Short Film
After shave - Hany Tamba

(Translated from French)