‘Anatomy of a fall‘ and its director Justine Triet took home this Friday the most important awards of the 49th edition of the Caesar Awards, such as direction, best film or best original screenplay, in a gala very marked by demands against sexual abuse in the industry. Your director, Justine Trietalso wanted to show his support for all the actresses who have been injured and They have freed themselves by telling the truth.

“I would like to dedicate this Caesar to all women“said Triet at the legendary Olympia theater in Paris, already with the big award of the night, best film, in his hands.

This award certifies a brilliant track record that began in May with the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival and will have its grand culmination on March 11 in Hollywood, where ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ will aspire to five Oscars, although victory in the United States is more complicated than on this great night of French cinema.

Triet’s judicial thriller was the most awarded film, with six awards out of the eleven it aspired to; while the other great favorite of the night, the fantastic ‘The Animal Kingdom’ by Thomas Cailley, took five of its twelve nominations, with special success in the technical categories.

In interpretation, the German Sandra Hüller was awarded the statuette to best actress for his leading role in ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ and Arieh Worthalter did the same in the male category for ‘The Goldman Affair’.

Those of the secondary roles They went to Adèle Exarchopoulos for ‘The Two Faces of Justice’ and Swann Arlaud for his role as a lawyer in ‘Anatomy of a Fall’; while the awards for best revelation actors went to Ella Rumpf (‘Marguerite’s Theorem’) and Raphaël Quenard (‘Fierce Dog’).

For the award best foreign filmthe César Academy chose the Canadian ‘The Nature of Love’ (Monia Chokri).

Gala Hernández López, award for best documentary short

The only Spanish candidate The winner in this edition of the Césars was the director Gala Hernandez Lopezwhich won the award for best documentary short film for ‘La Mécanique des fluides’, a work in which it explored the ‘incel’ (involuntarily celibate) subculture and loneliness in the age of the internet.

In her speech accepting the award, the 30-year-old director from Murcia said that she would not be there without her “feminist comrades” and thanked her family, her team, her friends and France, the country in which she has developed his professional career, without failing to add a final “thank you very much” in Spanish.

He also asked that values ​​such as “equal opportunities, universalism, welcome, support for art and culture and the defense of public services”, which he admires in France but sees as threatened today, not be reduced. to “empty rhetoric” and allow the country to truly commit to crises like the one the Palestinian people are experiencing today.

“Very happy, I can’t believe it. I’m a little dissociated but very grateful for the award because it means a lot to me and my career,” she said after the ceremony, speaking to EFE.

The French ‘Me Too’ takes the floor

The ceremony at the Olympia theater was very marked by the claims against sexual abuse in the film industrye, since France witnessed a barrage of complaints and accusations in recent months.

The person in charge of representing this French ‘Me Too’ was the actress Judith Godrèche, who recently reported having been abused by two directors (Benoit Jaquot and Jacques Doillon) when she was a teenager. “I know it’s scary. Fear of losing subsidies, fear of losing roles,” said Godrèche, who was greeted with a standing ovation when she came out on stage. “We can decide that men accused of rape will no longer be the ones who make and break things in the cinema“he urged.

Other high-impact complaints pointed to Gérard Depardieu, sued by four women and publicly accused for more than a fortnight, or the ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ actor Samuel Theis.

For this gala, The César Academy decided to maintain its policy of not allowing figures who had open legal cases for acts of violence to participate.