24th Prix Lumières Winners

Updating blog. To watch complete awards ceremony, just two-hours long, go down to post end. Perhaps was only me but 2018 was a below average production quality for French Cinema as there were not great movies and much less, great directors.  The only director worth-watching did an English-language film and well, got enough honors by Paris based foreign press.  Yes, talking about The Sisters Brothers by Jacques Audiard.

To check winners at official site go here.  Winners are in *BLUE.

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12/18/18
Yesterday the foreign press based in Paris announced the nominations for the 2019 edition of the Lumières Awards which honors French and Francophone films since 1995 when Daniel Toscan du Plantier and Edward Behr created the award.

More than 130 films were screened in France during 2018 and 37 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 1,145 (double from last year) visits during the pre-selection stage.

2018 was a year with French film production making not much noise or buzz even when there were films by Jacques Audiard and Gaspar Noé, the first did a film in English and second, well his usual controversial kind of cinema; so, it's not a surprise that honors are spread as there are four films leading the pack.  The Sisters Brothers, In Safe Hands, Custody and Mademoiselle de Joncquières lead with four (4) nominations each.

Intriguing is the absence in top categories of latest film by Abdellatif Kechiche as only gets one nomination because newcomer performance and there are a few great French films that are not honored but believe is because they have not been released in theaters yet, films like those by Eva Husson, Yann Gonzalez, and Christophe Honore.


The Nominations

Best Film
Amanda, Mikhaël Hers
*Les Frères Sisters (The Sisters Brothers), Jacques Audiard
Guy, Alex Lutz
Mademoiselle de Joncquières, Emmanuel Mouret
Pupille (In Safe Hands), Jeanne Herry



Best First Film
Les Chatouilles,  Andréa Bescond and Eric Métayer
Les Garçons sauvages,  Bertrand Mandico
*Jusqu’à la garde (Custody),  Xavier Legrand
Sauvage,  Camille Vidal-Naquet
Shéhérazade,  Jean-Bernard Marlin

Best Francophone Country Film
Capharnaüm,  Nadine Labaki, Lebanon
Chris the Swiss,  Anja Kofme, Switzerland
*Girl, Lukas Dhont, Belgium
L’Insulte,  Ziad Doueiri, Lebanon
Nos batailles,  Guillaume Senez, Belgium

Best Animated Film
Astérix - Le Secret de la potion magique,  Louis Clichy and Alexandre Astier
*Dilili à Paris, Michel Ocelot
Mutafukaz,  Shojiro Nishimi et Run
Pachamama,  Juan Antín

Best Documentary
Cassandro, the Exotico !,  Marie Losier
De chaque instant,  Nicolas Philibert
Nul homme n’est une île,  Dominique Marchais
Premières solitudes,  Claire Simon
*Samouni Road,  Stefano Savona

Best Director
*Jacques Audiard for Les Frères Sisters
Jeanne Herry for Pupille
Xavier Legrand for Jusqu’à la garde
Gaspar Noé for Climax
Pierre Salvadori for En Liberté

Best Actress
*Elodie Bouchez in Pupille
Cécile de France in Mademoiselle de Joncquières
Léa Drucker in Jusqu’à la garde
Virginie Efira in Un amour impossible
Mélanie Thierry in La Douleur



Most Promising Actress
*Ophélie Bau in Mektoub My Love
Galatéa Bellugi in L’Apparition
Andréa Bescond in Les Chatouilles
Jeanne Cohendy in Marche ou crève
Kenza Fortas in Shéhérazade

Best Actor
Romain Duris in Nos batailles
Vincent Lacoste in Amanda
Vincent Lindon in En guerre
*Alex Lutz in Guy
Denis Ménochet in Jusqu’à la garde

Most Promising Actor
Anthony Bajon in La Prière
William Lebghil in Première année
Andranic Manet in Mes provinciales
*Félix Maritaud in Sauvage
Dylan Rober in Shéhérazade

Best Screenplay
Andréa Bescond and Eric Métayer for Les Chatouilles
Jeanne Herry for Pupille
Thomas Lilti for Première année
Emmanuel Mouret for Mademoiselle de Joncquières
*Pierre Salvadori, Benoît Graffin and Benjamin Charbit for En liberté!

Best Cinematography
Benoît Debie for Climax
*Benoît Debie for Les Frères Sisters
Laurent Desmet for Mademoiselle de Joncquières
Julien Hirsch for Un peuple et son roi
David Ungaro for Les Confins du monde



Best Music
Camille Bazbaz for En liberté!
*Vincent Blanchard and Romain Greffe for Guy
Alexandre Desplat for Les Frères Sisters
Pierre Desprats for Les Garçons sauvages
Grégoire Hetzel for Un amour impossible

To check nominations at official site go here, available only in French and you'll have to open PDF file. The 24th awards ceremony will be on Monday, February 4, 2019 at L'Institut du monde arabe in Paris.



2019 Awards Ceremony