By receiving five Oscar nominations on Tuesday, most notably in the Best Picture and Best Director categories for the French film Justine Triet Anatomy of a fall is now in a position to make Hollywood history The artist a decade ago.
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“I am very moved. I certainly thought we would be nominated for screenplay alone, but I didn't really imagine that. I am very touched, it is a great joy,” the filmmaker reacted to franceinfo.
These nominations were announced less than 24 hours before those of the French Césars, which are expected on Wednesday at 10 a.m. and where the film has every chance of coming out on top.
“It is a unique adventure that never ends. I don’t know if we’ll ever see it again,” the film’s producer, Marie-Ange Luciani, told AFP.
Anatomy of a Fall is also nominated in the categories of “Best Actress” for the German Sandra Hülser, “Best Original Screenplay”, co-written by Justine Triet and her companion Arthur Harari, and “Best Editing”.
This feature film, which analyzes the power dynamics within a range of artists, has already allowed Justine Triet to become, at the age of 45, the third female director in history to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2 hours and 32 minutes, the trial of a woman accused of killing her husband is told, with the couple's visually impaired boy and his dog as the only witnesses.
Icy and fallible at the same time, Sandra Hülser as the defendant is just as unforgettable as the child with the inscrutable face, the young actor Milo Machado-Graner.
Taste of revenge
Given its track record – seven nominations for the British Baftas, two Golden Globes, for best screenplay and best foreign language film – Oscar hopes are high for the feature, which also appears in the top 10 best films of the year the former US President Barack Obama.
If he were crowned on March 10, he would, like The Artist a decade ago, shape the history of the Oscars, which tend to focus on American productions. The film by Michel Hazanavicius won the Best Film award and the Best Actor award for Jean Dujardin.
In recent years, Justine Triet has joined other French women who have stood out in Hollywood, including Marion Cotillard (best actress in 2008 for “La Môme”) and Juliette Binoche (best supporting actress in 1997 for “The English Patient”).
- Listen to the interview with Vincent René-Lortie, director of the Oscar-nominated short film “Invincible.” QUB :
These Oscar nominations already smell like revenge for Justine Triet, for auteur cinema and for the French “cultural exception” that she vehemently defended on the Croisette when she attacked the French government in the midst of pension reform.
Unusually, President Macron did not send him a congratulatory message. However, what he finally achieved wasn't until January, after he won the Golden Globes.
On Tuesday, new Culture Minister Rachida Dati quickly responded to these Oscar nominations on social network X, saying she was “proud of France, the historic home of cinema, and of our cultural influence.”
“If no one is shocked anymore, that's fine with me!” replied Marie-Ange Luciani, telling AFP that the film crew was in “altruism and positivity”. And that she did not “rejoice in the defeat of others.”
camouflage
Because these nominations are also a snub to the professional commission put together by the National Cinema Center (CNC), which is supposed to submit a French film for the Oscars in the “Best Foreign Film” category.
Despite its public success in France (1.3 million visitors) and internationally (1.6 million visitors) and almost unanimous criticism, this commission rejected Anatomy of a Fall and preferred Passion by Dodin Bouffant by Tran Anh Hung, a film about the French Gastronomy with Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche.
That film was ultimately not selected by the Oscar Academy on Tuesday and France will therefore not be in the running for Best Foreign Film this year.
Once these nominations are announced, the Anatomy of a Fall team will be on the lookout for the César nominations. The film should play a prominent role in the voting of the 4,705 film professionals who make up the Academy.