Catherine Deneuve: César Award Record-Tier

Catherine Deneuve: Best Actress César Award ‘record-tier’ for ‘In the Courtyard,’ with Oleg Kupchik and Big Dog.

Catherine Deneuve: César Award Best Actress Record-Tier

(See previous post: “Kristen Stewart & Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.”) Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César Award nominations to date; as mentioned in the previous post, this year she has tied Isabelle Huppert’s César record in the Best Actress category.

Deneuve’s nods have been for the following movies:

• Pierre Salvadori’s In the Courtyard / Dans la cour (2014).
• Emmanuelle Bercot’s On My Way / Elle s’en va (2013).
• François Ozon’s box office hit Potiche (2010).
• Nicole Garcia’s Place Vendôme (1998).
• André Téchiné’s Thieves / Les voleurs (1996).
• André Téchiné’s My Favorite Season / Ma saison préférée (1993).
• Régis Wargnier’s Indochine (1992).
• François Dupeyron’s Strange Place for an Encounter / Drôle d’endroit pour une rencontre (1988).
• Jean-Pierre Mocky’s Agent trouble (1987).
• André Téchiné’s Hotel America / Hôtel des Amériques (1981).
• François Truffaut’s The Last Metro / Le dernier métro (1980).
• Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s Le sauvage (1975).

Additionally, Catherine Deneuve was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for Valérie Lemercier’s Palais royal! (2005).

Deneuve has won two César Awards: for Indochine and The Last Metro. The former also earned her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination. (She lost to Emma Thompson for James Ivory’s Howards End.)

Isabelle Huppert César Award nominations

For the record, Isabelle Huppert’s 12 Best Actress César nominations were for the following movies:

• Patrice Chéreau’s Gabrielle (2005).
• François Ozon’s 8 Women / 8 femmes (2002), which also features Catherine Deneuve as Huppert’s sister.
• Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher / La pianiste (2001).
• Patricia Mazuy’s The King’s Daughters / Saint-Cyr (2000).
• Benoît Jacquot’s The School of Flesh / L’école de la chair (1998).
• Claude Chabrol’s The Ceremony / La cérémonie (1995).
• Christian Vincent’s La séparation (1994).
• Claude Chabrol’s Story of Women / Une affaire de femmes (1988).
• Bertrand Tavernier’s Coup de torchon (1981).
• Maurice Pialat’s Loulou (1980).
• Claude Chabrol’s Violette / Violette Nozière (1978).
• Claude Goretta’s The Lacemaker / La dentellière (1977).

Additionally, Isabelle Huppert was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for Liliane de Kermadec’s Aloïse (1975) and Michael Haneke’s Amour (2012). Huppert has won only one César, for La cérémonie.

Charlotte Rampling in ‘Under the Sand’: British multiple César nominee.

Few British and American César-nominated actors

The brief list of César-nominated performers – mostly women – hailing from the Anglophone world includes the following:

American opera and musical theater performer Julia Migenes.

• Best Actress nominee for Francesco Rosi’s Carmen (1984).

British actress Jane Birkin.

• Best Actress nominee for Jacques Doillon’s La Pirate (1984).
• Best Actress nominee for Régis Wargnier’s The Woman of My Life / La femme de ma vie (1986).
• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Jacques Rivette’s La Belle Noiseuse / The Beautiful Troublemaker (1991).

British actress Charlotte Rampling.

• Best Actress nominee for Jacques Deray’s He Died with His Eyes Open / On ne meurt que deux fois (1985).
• Best Actress nominee for François Ozon’s Under the Sand / Sous le sable (2000).
• Best Actress nominee for François Ozon’s Swimming Pool (2003).
• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Dominik Moll’s Lemming (2005).

British actress Jacqueline Bisset.

• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie (1995).

American actor Adrien Brody.

• Best Actor winner for Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002).

British actress Kelly Reilly.

• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Cédric Klapisch’s Russian Dolls / Les poupées russes (2005).

British actress Tilda Swinton.

• Best Actress nominee for Erick Zonca’s Julia (2008).

British actress Kristin Scott Thomas.

• Best Actress nominee for Philippe Claudel’s I’ve Loved You So Long / Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (2008).
• Best Actress nominee for Catherine Corsini’s Leaving / Partir (2009).
• Best Actress nominee for Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s Sarah’s Key / Elle s’appelait Sarah (2010).

American actress Kristen Stewart.

• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria / Sils Maria (2014).

Although born in New York City, Best Actor César winner Christopher Lambert (Luc Besson’s Subway, 1985) was raised in Geneva and has always been chiefly associated with the French film industry.

César-nominated actors from non-Francophone world

Among the few other César-nominated performers hailing from the non-Francophone world – once again, mostly women – are the following:

Austrian actress Romy Schneider.

• Best Actress winner for Andrzej Zulawski’s That Most Important Thing: Love / L’important c’est d’aimer (1975).
• Best Actress nominee for Pierre Granier-Deferre’s Une femme à sa fenêtre (1976).
• Best Actress winner for Claude Sautet’s A Simple Story / Une histoire simple (1978).
• Best Actress nominee for Costa-Gavras’ Womanlight / Clair de femme (1979).
• Best Actress nominee for Jacques Rouffio’s La passante du Sans-Souci (1982).
• Posthumous Honorary César (2008) presented by Schneider’s La piscine co-star Alain Delon.

German actress Nastassja Kinski.

• Best Actress nominee for Roman Polanski’s Tess (1979).
• Best Actress nominee for Jacques Deray’s Malady of Love / Maladie d’amour (1987).

Spanish actress Victoria Abril.

• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Jean-Jacques Beineix’s The Moon in the Gutter / La lune dans le caniveau (1983).
• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Denis Amar’s L’Addition (1984).

Danish actress Anna Karina, who is chiefly associated with the French film industry.

• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Alain Maline’s Cayenne Palace (1987).

Spanish actress María Casarès, who moved to France in her mid-teens.

• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Michel Deville’s The Reader / La lectrice (1988)

Italian actress Virna Lisi.

• Best Supporting Actress winner for Patrice Chéreau’s Queen Margot / La reine Margot (1994).

Spanish actress Carmen Maura.

• Best Supporting Actress nominee for Étienne Chatiliez’s Happiness Is in the Field / Le bonheur est dans le pré (1995).
• Best Supporting Actress winner for Philippe Le Guay’s The Women on the 6th Floor / Les femmes du 6e étage (2010).

Spanish actor Sergi López.

• Most Promising Actor nominee for Manuel Poirier’s Western (1997).
• Best Actor winner for Dominik Moll’s With a Friend Like Harry… / Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (2000).

Egyptian actor Omar Sharif.

• Best Actor winner for François Dupeyron’s Monsieur Ibrahim / Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran (2003).

Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung.

• Best Actress nominee for Olivier Assayas’ Clean (2004).

Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen.

• Best Actor nominee for Arnaud des Pallières’ Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas / Michael Kohlhaas (2013).

Bérénice Bejo in ‘Meilleur espoir féminin’ / ‘Most Promising Young Actress’: Foreign-born César nominee.

César-nominated French actors born elsewhere: From Simone Signoret to Bérénice Bejo

German-born (to French parents), Paris-raised actress Simone Signoret.

• Best Actress winner for Moshé Mizrahi’s Madame Rosa / La vie devant soi (1977).
• Best Actress nominee for Pierre Granier-Deferre’s The North Star / L’étoile du Nord (1982).

Italian-born actor Yves Montand.

• Best Actor nominee for Henri Verneuil’s I as in Icarus / I… comme Icare (1979)
• Best Actor nominee for Claude Sautet’s Garçon! (1983).

Italian-born actor Lino Ventura.

• Best Actor nominee for Robert Hossein’s Les Misérables (1982).

Tunisian-born actor and director Michel Boujenah.

• Best Supporting Actor winner for Coline Serreau’s Three Men and a Cradle / 3 hommes et un couffin (1985).
• Best Actor nominee for Ariel Zeitoun’s Le nombril du monde (1993).

Additionally, Boujenah was shortlisted in the Best First Work of Fiction category for Father and Sons / Père et fils (2003).

West German-born – to a French mother and an American father – actor and director Jean-Marc Barr. Although he spent his youth at different locations, Barr is known as a French film star.

• Best Actor nominee for Luc Besson’s The Big Blue / Le grand bleu (1988).

Argentinean-born actress Bérénice Bejo.

• Most Promising Actress nominee for Gérard Jugnot’s Most Promising Young Actress / Meilleur espoir féminin (2000).
• Best Actress winner for Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist (2011).
• Best Actress nominee for Asghar Farhadi’s The Past / Le passé (2013).

Among the other César-nominated French film industry performers born outside Europe’s Francophone regions are:

• Yvan Attal (Israel).
• Jean Reno (Morocco).
• Gad Elmaleh (Morocco).
• Patrick Timsit (Algeria).
• Daniel Auteuil (Algeria).

Just in case you know little about world history, both Morocco and Algeria used to be French colonies.

French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.

Image of Best Actress César Award nominee Catherine Deneuve in In the Courtyard with Oleg Kupchik and Big Dog: Les Films Pelléas, via AlloCiné.

Bérénice Bejo in Most Promising Young Actress image: Rigolo Films 2000 a.k.a. Rigolo Films Productions, via Challenges.fr.

Charlotte Rampling in Under the Sand image: Fidélité Productions, via giancinéphile.