Justine Triet’s ‘Anatomy Of A Fall’ Wins Best Film & Director At Césars; Sandra Hüller Wins Best Actress

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Justine Triet’s Anatomy of A Fall won Best Film and Director at the 49th edition of the French César awards on Friday.

Triet is only the second women to clinch the Best Director prize in the near 50-year history of the César Awards after Tonie Marshall for Venus Beauty in 1976.

Anatomy of a Fall also won Best Actress for Sandra Hüller, Best Original Screenplay for Triet and Arthur Harari, Editing for Laurent Sénéchal and Supporting Actor for Swann Arlaud.

The Cannes Palme d’Or winner was one of the front runners at this year’s edition with 11 nominations after The Animal Kingdom with 12.

Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom, which world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2023, won Best Sound, VFX, Original Music, Costumes and Cinematography.

Christopher Nolan also put in an appearance to receive an Honorary César alongside French director Agnès Jaoui, best known internationally for her 2001 hit The Taste Of Others.

Attending with producer and wife Emma Thomas, Nolan was presented with the award by Cotillard, who appeared in Inception and Dark Knight Rise.

Nolan paid tribute to the role that France, with its love and respect for cinema, in his trajectory as a filmmaker.

Beyond the films, the main focus was on a moving and impassioned speech by actress and director Judith Godrèche, who has set in motion a #MeToo earthquake in France in recent weeks with her public accusations of sexual assault against directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon.

Both men have denied the accusations with Doillon announcing via his lawyer this week that he was going to sue Godrèche for defamation.

Godrèche made an appeal for a new era of truth around the issue of sexual abuse in France’s cinema world after decades of silence and denial.

“For some time now, voices have been unleashed, the idealized image of our fathers has been shattered, power almost seems to be in a state of turmoil, could it be possible for us to look at the truth in the eye?,” she said in specially programmed slot.

“To take on our responsibilities? To be actors, actresses of a world that is questioning itself?, “ she asked. “For some time now, I’ve been talking and talking, but I can’t hear you, or only a little. Where are you? What are you saying? A whisper. Half a word.”

Godrèche’s decision to break her silence comes amid a growing #MeToo moment in France which has also seen French acting icon Gérard Depardieu’s star fall in the wake of multiple accusations of sexual assault and one of rape, a development that has divided the French cinema world.

Triet seemed to pick up on Godrèche’s message in her acceptance speech for the Best Film to: “All the women, those who are stuck in their choices, in their solitude, those who exist too much, those who don’t exist enough, those who succeed and those who fail and finally those who’ve hurt hurt who free themselves by talking, and those who does manage to.”

Best Film

Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet

Best Director

Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Actor

Arieh Worthalter, The Goldman Case

Best Actress

Sandra Hüller for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Supporting Actress

Adèle Exarchopoulos, All Your Faces

Best Supporting Actor

Swann Arlaud, Anatomy Of A Fall

Female Revelation

Ella Rumpf, Marguerite’s Theorem

Male Revelation

Raphaël Quenard, Junkyard Dog

Best Original Screenplay

Justine Triet, Arthur Harari for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Adapted Screenplay

Valérie Donzelli, Audrey Diwan, Just The Two Of Us

Cinematography

David Cailley for The Animal Kingdom

Best Costumes

Ariane Daurat, The Animal Kingdom