Jean Dujardin can’t win ’em all. For his (in my humble opinion brilliant) performance as a fading silent film star in Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist, he was voted Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, the British Academy Awards, the SAG Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Australian Film Institute Awards (as Best International Actor). He was also chosen as the Best Actor of 2011 by both the London Film Critics Circle and the Academy of French Film Journalists. (See further below the full list of César winners and nominees.)
Earlier this evening, however, Dujardin lost the Best Actor César du Cinéma. The 2012 French equivalent of the Oscars went instead to comedian Omar Sy, who costars with François Cluzet in the feel-good box office blockbuster The Intouchables / The Intouchables. Perhaps enough members of the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts were envious of Dujardin’s international success and/or felt he had already won too many awards. Or perhaps they decided it was time to give a Best Actor César to a black man – Sy is the first to win in that category. Or it could even be that enough French Academy members felt Sy, who interrupted his acceptance speech to offer a quick onstage dance (?) performance, was more deserving.
In any case, Sy’s victory was the only one for The Intouchables. The Artist, on the other hand, won a total of six Césars: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Bérénice Bejo as ascending dawn-of-the-sound era star Peppy Miller), Best Cinematography (Guillaume Schiffman), Best Art Direction (Laurence Bennett), and Best Music (Ludovic Bource).
Among this year’s other César winners were veteran Michel Blanc for The Minister, which also won awards for Best Sound and Best Original Screenplay for writer-director Pierre Schöller (defeating The Artist’s Hazanavicius); former Pedro Almodóvar muse Carmen Maura for Philippe Le Guay’s comedy The Women on the 6th Floor; and Christian Rouaud and Clémence Latour’s documentary Tous au Larzac / Leader-Sheep, about how a group of farmers took on the French government in the ’70s.
For co-writing with playwright Yasmina Reza the movie adaptation of Gods of Carnage, more concisely retitled as Carnage, Roman Polanski won his sixth César – his first in the writing categories. Polanski had previously won as Best Director for Tess (1979), The Pianist (2002), and The Ghost Writer (2010), besides taking home Best Picture Césars for the aforementioned first two films. One of Carnage’s stars, Kate Winslet, was this year’s Honorary César recipient.
And finally, out of its 13 nods – seven of which in the acting categories – Maïwenn’s Polisse won a single César: Best Film Editing for Laure Gardette and Yann Dedet.
Best Film
* The Artist – Prod.: Thomas Langmann; Dir.: Michel Hazanavicius
Declaration of War / La Guerre est déclarée – Prod.: Edouard Weil; Dir.: Valérie Donzelli
Le Havre – Prod.: Fabienne Vonier; Dir.: Aki Kaurismäki
The Intouchables / Intouchables – Prod.: Denis Freyd; Dir.: Éric Toledano & Olivier Nakache
The Minister / L’Exercice de l’État – Prod.: Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou & Laurent Zeitoun; Dir.: Pierre Schöller
Pater – Prod.: Michel Seydoux; Dir.: Alain Cavalier
Polisse – Prod.: Alain Attal; Dir.: Maïwenn
Best Foreign Film
Black Swan (United States) – Dir.: Darren Aronofsky
Drive (United States) – Dir.: Nicolas Winding Refn
Incendies (Canada) – Dir.: Denis Villeneuve
The Kid with a Bike / Le Gamin au vélo (Belgium) – Dir.: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
The King’s Speech (United Kingdom) – Dir.: Tom Hooper
Melancholia (Denmark | Sweden | France | Germany) – Dir.: Lars von Trier
* A Separation (Iran) – Dir.: Asghar Farhadi
Best Debut
Angèle and Tony / Angèle et Tony – Dir.: Alix Delaporte
Delicacy / La Délicatesse – Dir.: David & Stéphane Foenkinos
My Little Princess – Dir.: Eva Ionesco
17 Girls / 17 filles – Dir.: Delphine & Muriel Coulin
* When Pigs Have Wings / Le Cochon de Gaza – Dir.: Sylvain Estibal
Best Director
Alain Cavalier, Pater
Valérie Donzelli, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War
* Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Aki Kaurismäki, Le Havre
Maïwenn, Polisse
Pierre Schöller, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, The Intouchables / The Intouchables
Best Cinematography
Pierre Aïm, Polisse
Josée Deshaies, L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance
Julien Hirsch, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
* Guillaume Schiffman, The Artist
Mathieu Vadepied, The Intouchables / The Intouchables
Best Editing
Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Laurence Briaud, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Pauline Gaillard, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War
* Laure Gardette, Yann Dedet, Polisse
Dorian Rigal Ansous, The Intouchables / The Intouchables
Best Original Score
Alex Beaupain, Les bien-aimés
Bertand Bonello, L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance
Matthieu Chedid a.k.a. -M-, Patrice Renson, Monstre à Paris / A Monster in Paris
* Ludovic Bource, The Artist
Philippe Schoeller, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Best Production Design
* Laurence Bennett, The Artist
Alain Guffroy, L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance
Pierre-François Limbosch, Les femmes du 6ème étage / The Women on the 6th Floor
Jean-Marc Tran Tan Ba, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Wouter Zoon, Le Havre
Best Costume Design
Catherine Baba, My Little Princess
Mark Bridges, The Artist
Christian Gasc, Les femmes du 6ème étage / The Women on the 6th Floor
Viorica Petrovici, La Source des femmes / The Source
* Anaïs Romand, L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance
Best Sound
Pascal Armant, Jean Goudier, Jean-Paul Hurier, The Intouchables / The Intouchables
Jean-Pierre Duret, Nicolas Moreau, Jean-Pierre Laforce, L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance
* Olivier Hespel, Julie Brenta, Jean-Pierre Laforce, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Nicolas Provost, Rym Debbarh-Mounir, Emmanuel Croset, Polisse
André Rigaut, Sébastien Savine, Laurent Gabiot, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War
Jean Dujardin/Missi Pyle/The Artist image: The Weinstein Company
Best Actor
Sami Bouajila, Omar m’a tuer / Omar Killed Me
François Cluzet, The Intouchables / The Intouchables
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Olivier Gourmet, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Denis Podalydes, La conquête / The Conquest
* Omar Sy, The Intouchables / The Intouchables
Philippe Torreton, Présumé coupable / Guilty
Best Actress
Ariane Asquaride, Les neiges du Kilimanjaro / The Snows of Kilimanjaro
* Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Leila Bekhti, La Source des femmes / The Source
Valérie Donzelli, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War
Marina Foïs, Polisse
Marie Gilain, Toutes nos envies / All Our Desires
Karin Viard, Polisse
Best Supporting Actor
* Michel Blanc, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Nicolas Duvauchelle, Polisse
Joey Starr, Polisse
Bernard Lecoq, La conquête / The Conquest
Frédéric Pierrot, Polisse
Best Supporting Actress
Zabou Breitman, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Anne Le Ny, The Intouchables / The Intouchables
Noémie Lvovsky, L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance
* Carmen Maura, Les femmes du 6e étage / The Women on the 6th Floor
Karole Rocher, Polisse
Most Promising Actor
Nicolas Bridet, Tu seras mon fils / You Will Be My Son
* Grégory Gadebois, Angèle et Tony / Angèle and Tony
Guillaume Bouix, Jimmy Rivière
Pierre Minet, J’aime regarder les filles / I Love Watching Girls
Dimitri Storoge, Les Lyonnais
Most Promising Actress (tie)
* Naidra Ayadi, Polisse
Adele Haenel, L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance
Céline Salette, L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance
* Clotilde Hesme, Angèle et Tony / Angèle and Tony
Christa Theret, La brindille / Twiggy
Best Original Screenplay
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War
Éric Toledano, Olivier Nakache, The Intouchables / The Intouchables
Maïwenn, Emmanuelle Bercot, Polisse
* Pierre Schöller, L’exercice de l’État / The Minister
Best Adapted Screenplay
David Foenkinos, La Délicatesse / Delicacy
Vincent Garenq, Présumé coupable / Guilty
Olivier Gorce, Roschdy Zem, Rachid Bouchareb, Olivier Lorelle, Omar m’a tuer / Omar Killed Me
Mathieu Kassovitz, Pierre Geller, Benoît Jaubert, L’ordre et la morale / Rebellion
* Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski, Carnage
Best Documentary
Le Bal des menteurs / The Liars’ Ball directed by Daniel Leconte
Crazy Horse directed by Frederick Wiseman
Ici on noie les algériens / Here We Drown Algerians directed by Yasmina Adi
* Tous au Larzac / Leader-Sheep directed by Christian Rouaud, Clémence Latour
Michel Petrucciani directed by Michael Radford
Best Short Film
* L’accordeur / The Piano Tuner directed by Olivier Treiner
La France qui se lève tôt / Early Rising France directed by Hugo Chesnard
J’aurais pu être une pute / I Could’ve Been a Whore directed by Baya Kasmi
Je pourrais être votre grand-mère / I Could Be Your Grandmother directed by Bernard Tanguy
Un monde sans femmes / A World Without Women directed by Guillaume Brac
Best Animated Feature
Le Tableau / The Painting directed by Jean-François Laguionie
Le Cirque / The Circus directed by Nicolas Brault
* Le Chat du rabbin / The Rabbi’s Cat directed by Joann Sfar, Antoine Delesvaux
Monstre à Paris / A Monster in Paris directed by Bibo Bergeron
La Queue de la souris / A Mouse’s Tale directed by Benjamin Renner
Honorary César
Kate Winslet
“César Awards 2012” notes
Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo The Artist image: The Weinstein Company.