Cedric Klapisch for In BodyLouis Garrel for The InnocentCedric Jimenez for NovemberDominik Moll for The Night of 12Albert Serra for Pacification… The Academy revealed on Wednesday January 25 the complete list of contenders for its 48th edition. Not a single woman is nominated for Best Direction. Same thing for the Oscars, who unveiled their selection the day before.

The American ceremony is often criticized for its lack of diversity. Since 1990, 85% of winners have been men. It was not until the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010 that a woman won the statuette for best director: Kathryn Bigelow rewarded for the film Minesweepers. Since then, two other women have been awarded: Chloé Zhao for nomadland in 2021 and Jane Campion for Power of the Dog in 2022.

Parity achieved only once in France

On our side of the Atlantic, women have gleaned since the first ceremony in 1976 only a large quarter of the Caesars (27.4%). In the categories putting men and women in competition, the proportion of winners even drops by 10 points, to 17.9%. It’s barely better than the American Oscars, of which 17.3% were awarded to women over the period.

Parity has only been achieved once in France, in 2000: 9 out of 18 Césars were awarded to women. The ceremony consecrated Tonie Marshall, the only woman to date to have won for Venus beauty (institute) the César for best director. An appellation that has replaced since 1996 the very gendered César for best director.

As at the Oscars, it is in the category of best costumes that women are best represented, with 71% of the awards. In France, they also dominate the list of best editing, winning 64% of the Césars. They are very much in the minority at the Oscars in this category (18%).

Storm in 2020

Women are almost absent from the Césars awards in the best sound, best photography and best scenery categories. Only one was awarded in the category of best original music: La Caïta, awarded in 2001 for the soundtrack of Vengo.

The publication of the list of Césars 2023 has once again fueled the controversy on social networks, Internet users deploring the absence of Rebecca Zlotowki (Other people’s children) or Alice Winocour (See Paris again) for best achievement. Especially since, since 2014, at least one director was still in the running in this category.

The Academy had been shaken and then dissolved after the storm caused by the presentation of the prize for best director to Roman Polanski, accused of sexual assault and rape, during the 45th ceremony, in 2020. It is now made up of almost as many women than men (44% versus 56%).