23rd Prix Lumières Winners

Last night at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris, the International Press had their awards ceremony and believe there were no surprises as 120 battements par minute swept the awards by collecting six out of the six nominations, which indeed is a clean sweep!

As expected, Jeanne Balibar won the Best Actress for her performance in Barbara and notabl, Visage, Villages won Best Documentary with the presence of Agnes Varda who said, she was in Paris for this event while JR was in Los Angeles for the Oscars Luncheon (yes, JR took Varda's full size cardboard to the Oscars to became the Toast of the event! - and Meryl Streep was amused and left her in a fit of giggles -lol-).

Nevertheless, going back to this event, the ceremony opened with the short Au feu rouge by Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade, which you can watch in the full ceremony video at bottom of this post.

The group paid tribute this year to Jean-Paul Belmondo and Monica Bellucci, both of whom were in attendance, for their contribution to the influence of French Cinema in the world.

Winners are in *BLUE.  To check winners at official site go here, available only in French.

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12/11/17
Early this morning the foreign press based in Paris announced the nominations for the 2018 edition of the Lumières Awards which honors French and Francophone films since 1995 when Daniel Toscan du Plantier and Edward Behr created the award.

Around 100 eligible films were screened in France during 2017 and 44 gained a nomination; now eighty (80) Lumières Academy members -representing 30+ countries- will vote to define the winner in each category.  Very-lucky Academy members have access to a videotheque created jointly with Cinando and Le Marche du Film de Cannes where all films became available to them; the platform received more than 500 visits during the pre-selection stage.

Surely not surprising to many, 120 battements par minute (BPM) leads with six nominations -and surely will dominate the Cèsars- followed by Barbara and (surprising many) Le sens de la fête with four noms each.

After writing all the nominations my conclusion is that this very-unusual-for-me year has separate me from one of my very passions, French cinema as here there are too-many films that haven't seen and more shameful, haven't heard about them. Sigh.  Yes 2017 came with a huge personal-life change, but that's no excuse to not watch the cinema I love the most.  Still, the great news is that there are some "new" films that have joined my viewing queue and hopefully will watch soon.

But then, me not hearing about so many films means they premiered outside the three main film festivals and consequently, I'm surprised that some films by extraordinary directors received no nominations, that's strange/unusual, isn't?  Perhaps the Cèsars nominations will more benevolent with those well-known directors and their films. (for example, where are Huppert, Trintignant, Claire Denis, etc.)

The nominations

Best Film
*120 battements par minute (BPM), Robin Campillo
Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There), Albert Dupontel
Barbara, Mathieu Amalric
Félicité, Alain Gomis
Orpheline, Arnaud des Pallières
Le sens de la fête, Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache

Best First Film
Les bienheureux (Blessed), Sofia Djama
*En attendant les hirondelles (Until the Birds Return), Karim Moussaoui
Grave (Raw), Julia Ducournau
Jeune femme (Montparnasse Bienvenüe), Léonor Serraille
Patients (Step by Step), Grand Corps Malade and Mehdi Idir
Petit paysan (Bloody Milk), Hubert Charuel

Best Francophone Film
Avant la fin de l'été (Before Summer Ends), Maryam Goormaghtigh
La belle et la meute (Beauty and the Dogs), Kaouther Ben Hania
Noces (A Wedding), Stephan Streker
Paris pieds nus (Lost in Paris), Dominique Abel et Fiona Gordon
*Une famille syrienne (Insyriated), Philippe Van Leeuw

Best Animated Film
Drôles de petites bêtes, Antoon Krings and Arnaud Bouron
*Le grand méchant Renard et autres contes (Big Bad Fox), Benjamin Renner and Patrick Imbert
Zombillenium, Arthur de Pins and Alexis Ducord

Best Documentary
Carré 35, Eric Caravaca
Lumière! L'aventure commence, Thierry Frémaux
Makala, Emmanuel Gras
Sans adieu, Christophe Agou
Le vénérable W, (The Venerable W.), Barbet Schroeder
*Visages Villages (Faces Places), Agnès Varda and JR

Best Director
Mathieu Amalric for Barbara
*Robin Campillo for 120 battements par minute (BPM)
Laurent Cantet for L'Atelier (The Workshop)
Philippe Garrel for L'amant d'un jour (Love for a Day)
Alain Gomis for Félicité
Michel Hazanavicius for Le redoutable (Redoubtable)

Best Actress
Hiam Abbass in Une famille syrienne (Insyriated)
*Jeanne Balibar in Barbara
Juliette Binoche in Un beau soleil intérieur (Bright Sunshine In)
Emmanuelle Devos in Numéro une (Number One)
Charlotte Gainsbourg in La promesse de l'aube (Promise at Dawn)
Karin Viard in Jalouse

Most Promising Actress
Iris Bry in Les Gardienes (The Guardians)
*Laetitia Dosch in Jeune femme (Montparnasse Bienvenüe)
Eye Haidara in Le sens de la fête (C'est la vie!)
Camélia Jordana in Le brio
Pamela Ramos in Tous les rêves du monde (All the Dreams in the World)
Solène Rigot in Orpheline (Orphan)

Best Actor
Swann Arlaud in Petit paysan (Bloody Milk)
Daniel Auteuil in Le brio
Jean-Pierre Bacri in Le sens de la fête (C'est la vie!)
Louis Garrel in Le redoutable
Reda Kateb in Django
*Nahuel Pérez Biscayart  in 120 battements par minute (BPM)

Most Promising Actor
Khaled Alouach in De toutes me forces (Do It Right)
Matthieu Lucci in L'Atelier (The Workshop)
Nekfeu in Tout nous sépare (All That Divides Us)
Finnegan Oldfield in Marvin ou La belle éducation (Reinventing Marvin)
Pablo Pauly in Patients (Step by Step)
*Arnaud Valois in 120 battments par minute (BPM)

Best Screenplay
Christelle Berthevas and Arnaud des Pallières for Orpheline (Orphan)
*Robin Campillo and Philippe Mangeot for 120 battements par minute (BPM)
Albert Dupontel and Pierre Lemaitare for Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There)
Karim Moussaoui and Maud Ameline for En attendant les hirondelles (Until the Birds Return)
Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache for Le sens de la fête (C'est la vie!)

Best Cinematography
*Christophe Beaucarne for Barbara
Céline Bozon for Félicité
Caroline Champetier for Les gardiennes (The Guardians)
Alain Duplantier for Le semeur (The Sower)
Irina Lubtchansky for Les fantômes d’Ismaël (Ismael's Ghosts)
Vincent Mathias for Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There)

Best Music
Gaspar Claus for Makala
Angelo Foley and Grand Corps Malade for Patients (Step by Step)
Grégoire Hetzelfor Les fantômes d'Ismaël (Ismael's Ghosts)
Igorrr for Jeannette, l’enfance de Jeanne d’Arc (Jeannette, the Childhood of Joan of Arc)
*Arnaud Rebotini for 120 battements par minute (BPM)
Philippe Rombi for L'amant double (The Double Lover)

To check winners at the official site go here available only in French.  Been trying to find the date of the awards ceremony but no luck, most say will be in January 2018.  As soon as find date will add to Key Dates calendar.

This year the journalist group debut a new trophy designed by Joaquín Jiménez from La Monnaie de Paris.  The following is the designer statement.

Paris, ville lumière, et sa flamme, son phare.
Lumière dans le noir, la salle de cinéma

En gravure les lumières existent aussi, elles sont des ouvertures traversantes dans la matière,
elles permettent le passage. Le trophée représente donc une bande flamme dont l’âme, le foyer, la mèche, est la tour Eiffel.

Cette flamme est ajourée de «lumières», référence aux iconiques perforations des pellicules et aux fenêtres que sont les toiles decinéma que le regard traverse pour entrer dans la lumière d’une œuvre.