In all its history, only one female film director has won a best director at the César awards – the French equivalent of the Oscars – and in its 48th year, that is not about to change.
France’s prestigious film academy has not nominated any woman for the coveted award, despite a shakeup of the organisation after accusations of sexism and a number of critically acclaimed films by female directors released last year.
The row comes three years after the César academy accepted it had an equality problem and promised “gender parity” in all its decision-making bodies. It echoes similar outrage in the US after no woman was nominated for a 2023 best director Oscar when female directors made some of the year’s most successful films. Britain’s Baftas faced criticism for fronting an all-white lineup.
The omission of French female directors whose films have received critical praise and dominated the festivals has revived the debate about sexism and sexual equality in the country’s film industry.
“It’s so embarrassing to see that in a country like France, we’ve gone backwards,” Guslagie Malanda, star of Alice Diop’s film Saint Omer told Variety magazine.
“Many films directed by women were well financed and were championed by the critics and even made money at the box office.”
The 48th César awards ceremony will be held in Paris on Friday evening and has five male directorial candidates chosen by the 4,705 voting members: Cédric Klapisch (En Corps), Louis Garrel (L’innocent), Cédrik Jiminez (Novembre), Dominik Moll (La Nuit du 12) and Albert Serra (Pacifiction).
It ignored Alice Winocour’s Revoir Paris, Rebecca Zlotowski’s Les Enfants des Autres and Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, all film festival favourites that also made money in 2022. Only one woman made the shortlist for a major award: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, whose Les Amandiers was nominated for best film. Diop and Winocour were nominated for less prestigious awards, including best first film and best actress.
France Inter radio said that this year “women were notable for their absence”.
“It’s very disappointing,” the producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint told the station, adding that female directors had “made some marvellous films this year that were enormously liked, that many went to see and that had very good press.”
Rebecca Amsellem, a writer and creator of the feminist newsletters Les Glorieuses and Impact, said the academy’s decision this year was disappointing.
“There were signs that things were improving at the César academy and seemed to be an explicit willingness to change things. They know they have a problem and said they would address it, then nothing has changed,” Amsellem said.
“Some might argue the films by female directors are not good enough. I think it is fair to admit that the overwhelmingly male gaze in the film industry has inexorably led to a masculinisation of tastes. As a consequence, in a patriarchal society, women’s work is given less value.
“But I don’t think this argument applies here. Zlotowski’s movie, Diop’s movie, received tremendous positive reviews in France – it came as a shock to everyone when their movies were not selected.”
Since the creation of the César awards in 1976, only one woman, Tonie Marshall with Vénus Beauté, has won best director. Since 2014, the final list of nominees for this category has always included at least one female film-maker.
Disappointment over the lack of female nominees is particularly acute after the César academy promised to do better after sparking outrage and protests in 2020 by giving Roman Polanski – who is wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 – the best director and best adapted screenplay awards for J’accuse (An Officer and a Spy). The film had received 12 nominations.
More than 200 actors, directors, producers and others in the movie industry wrote an open letter accusing the academy of being out of touch and “dysfunctional”, sparking the board’s resignation and a subsequent shake-up in which more women were brought on to the board.
After the all-male list of nominations were announced last month, Marie-Charlotte Garin, an MP with Europe Écologie les Verts, proposed creating the Cléopâtre awards for women. The idea was taken up by Causette magazine, which came up with its own winners after a public vote and a staff vote: Diop won the former; Zlotowski the latter.
