When Roman Polanski‘s masterful An Officer and a Spy was nominated for 12 Cesars (think of them as the French Oscars), mounting pressure within the french film industry of a potential boycott of the February 28th ceremony was invading French airwaves. As Variety put it, it’s not just Polanski, “many industry executives have highlighted a lack of gender parity, diversity and transparency within the Cesar’s voting body.” Polanski was just the catalyst.
So what we basically have here is a “woke” resistance of the Cesars, France has slowly but surely been succumbing to gender inclusivity in its arts, nothing wrong with that, and the Cesars must surely be one of the first major targets of its ire. Many women within the French film industry have banded together to oust the current top chiefs of the Cesars who,, according to them, would rather just nominate the right candidates instead of putting down a quota.
A petition to overhaul the awards was released this past Tuesday in the newspaper Le Monde. The petition was signed by over 400industry artists including Lea Seydoux and Omar Sy, directors Michel Hazanavicius, Eric Toledano, Jacques Audiard, Arnaud Desplechin and Olivier Nakache, and producer Said Ben Said.
Petition excerpt: “The Cesar Academy comprises 4700 members…but as members, we don’t have a say when it comes to the functioning of the Academy…or the actual ceremony.”
Of course, this all wouldn’t have happened without the 12 nominations shelled out to Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy,” which actually deserves every single one of those nominations. They secretly screened Polanski’s film for me when I was in New York not too long ago, I want to thank the distributor for that, and, suffice to say, Polanski’s film is astounding — a topical and relevant movie about our times done by one of the very best living filmmakers around. The photography by Polanski veteran Pawel Edelman is also astounding.