French Gender Equality Group Launches #CesarSoMale Campaign After Female Directors Shut Out Of Awards
deadline.comFrench gender equality and diversity group Le Collectif 50/50 has hit out at the lack of female representation at the upcoming César awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars.
The protest comes after not a single woman made it into the Best Director category in nominations announced Wednesday. The awards ceremony is February 24 in Paris.
Just one feature by a female director — Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s controversy-hit Forever Young — was nominated for Best Film.
This outcome raised surprise in some quarters as there was a raft of strong features by female directors on release in France this year including Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories, Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children, Léa Mysius’ The Five Devils and 2023 French Oscar submission Saint Omer by Alice Diop. “Le Collectif 50/50 deplores the total absence of women in the Best Director category and their lack of representation in the Best Film category,” the body wrote in a statement released on Thursday evening. “We would have dreamed of distinguishing ourselves from the Oscars, an institution which also shows an incomprehensible forgetfulness when it comes to the directors who marked the past year with their works,” the body added.
