César 2009

The 34th César , the most important French film award, took place on February 27, 2009 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris .

Favorite films

Best Actor: Vincent Cassel for his title role in the two- parter Mesrine

Honorary Prize Winner Dustin Hoffman

When the nominations were announced on January 23, 2009, Jean-François Richets two-part feature film Mesrine (published in German-speaking countries under the titles Public Enemy No. 1 - Murder Instinct and Public Enemy No. 1 - Death Instinct ) dominated the award ceremony with ten nominations. The thriller starring Vincent Cassel in the title role of the French violent criminal Jacques Mesrine was a great success with the audience and competed against six other film productions, after only five nominees in the category of best film had been presented in previous years. However, the award for the best film of the year went to Martin Provosts Séraphine , who, with seven out of nine possible trophies, became the most successful film of the evening. The drama tells the story of Séraphine Louis , who is discovered as a maid in the house of the German art dealer Wilhelm Uhde and, as Séraphine de Senlis, becomes one of the most influential naive painters in France.

In addition to the prizes for the best adapted screenplay, film music, camera, costumes and production design, Séraphine also won the award for the best leading actress, which was presented to the Belgian Yolande Moreau . Moreau, who celebrated her 56th birthday on the day of the award ceremony, had already received the award for the tragic comedy When the Flood Comes four years earlier . She prevailed against the two British women Kristin Scott Thomas ( So Many Years I Love You ) and Tilda Swinton ( Julia ) , the Françoise Sagan actress and former award winner Sylvie Testud ( Bonjour Sagan ) and Catherine Frot . With Pascal Thomas ' Agatha Christie film Le Crime est notre affaire, Frot competed for the fifth time unsuccessfully for the award for best actress, which is a record low.

Vincent Cassel received the César for best leading actor for his portrayal of Jacques Mesrine after two unsuccessful nominations. The French actor, who remembered his father Jean-Pierre Cassel , who had died two years earlier, in his speech with a short film excerpt , was among other things opposite the Coluche actor François-Xavier Demaison (Coluche, l'histoire d'un mec) and Guillaume Depardieu victorious. Gérard Depardieu's son, who died in October 2008, received a posthumous nomination for the role of the spirited and seriously ill homeless Damien in Pierre Schoeller's drama Versailles . Mesrine received other awards for best direction and best tone.

Rémi Bezançon's C'est la vie - This is how we are, this is life (nine nominations) also received three Césars . The tragic comedy, which had over a million cinema viewers in France, won the trophies for the best young actors ( Déborah François and the absent Marc-André Grondin ) and the best editing. Philippe Claudel's highly acclaimed family drama So Many Years I Love You (Best Supporting Actress, Best Debut) achieved two victories, Arnaud Desplechin's Un conte de Noël (Best Supporting Actor) and Laurent Cantet's Goldene Palme winner Die Klasse won one award . Cantet's adaptation of a non-fiction book by François Bégaudeau , which takes part in a semi-documentary French class for an average and culturally heterogeneous Parisian middle school class, had competed unsuccessfully for the Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Language Film a few days earlier .

The comedy So ist Paris by Cédric Klapisch , which was also nominated in the category Best Film and received three nominations, did not receive an award. In advance, the eligible voting members of the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma , which awards the Césars, had almost completely ignored the successful comedies of the 2008 cinema year. Dany Boons Willkommen bei den Sch'tis , who became the most successful feature film production in French film history with 17 million tickets sold, received only one script nomination. The French comedian and director of Algerian descent took this as an opportunity to express criticism and boycott this year's award ceremony. However, Boon finally took part in the award ceremony as the laudator for the best debut film.

Christophe Barratier's tragic comedy Paris, Paris - Monsieur Pigoil on the way to happiness had only received five nominations in technical categories and, like This is Paris and Welcome to the Sch'tis, remained unprofitable. The award for the best foreign film went to Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir . The critically acclaimed animated documentary opposed, among other things, the European film award winner Gomorrah - Journey to the Empire of the Camorra from Italy, Sean Penn's drama Into the Wild and Paul Thomas Anderson's epic There Will Be Blood, which was nominated for an Oscar several times last year by. As in the Best Film category, seven foreign films were nominated instead of five as in previous years. Agnès Varda won the award for the best documentary film for The Beaches of Agnès . In her work, the renowned auteur filmmaker recreates childhood and other memories and, among other things, goes into the early days of the Nouvelle Vague and the optimism of the 1960s in the USA.

The ceremony was broadcast live by the French pay TV channel Canal + and broadcast in German-speaking countries by TV5MONDE Europe . As in the previous year, the moderation was the responsibility of the French director and actor Antoine de Caunes , who opened the gala with a tap dance number in homage to the film Singin 'in the Rain . The actress Charlotte Gainsbourg was president of the awards ceremony . The American actor Dustin Hoffman was awarded the honorary award . The two-time Oscar winner had already been honored a few days earlier with the highest French cultural order, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres , and received the award from his colleague Emma Thompson ( love at second sight ) . The famous French film director and producer Claude Berri , who died a few days before the announcement of the César nominations, as well as Georges Cravenne , founder of the French film award , was remembered .

Winners and nominations

Nominated for Best Actress: Catherine Frot

Awarded the César for Best Supporting Actress: Elsa Zylberstein

Emma Thompson , the honorary presenter for Dustin Hoffman

Thomas Langmann at the award ceremony

Movie	Victories	Nominations
Séraphine	7th	9
Public Enemy No. 1 - Murder Instinct / Public Enemy No. 1 - death instinct	3	10
C'est la vie!C'est la vie - that's how we are, that's life	3	9
I love you for so many years!I love you for so many years	2	6th
Class!The class	1	5
Un conte de Noël	1	9
Paris, Paris - Monsieur Pigoil on his way to happiness	0	5
Bonjour Sagan	0	3
Home	0	3
Beautiful girl!The beautiful girl	0	3
That's Paris!That's Paris	0	3
Days or hours	0	3
Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera	0	2
Crime est notre affaire!Le crime est notre affaire	0	2
Girls from Monaco!The girl from Monaco	0	2
Versailles	0	2