César film award nominations announced

Some of France’s most renowned actors including Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu have been nominated for César awards, the country’s version of the Oscars, while Hollywood star Michael Douglas will pick up a lifetime achievement prize at the event in Paris on 26 February, according to The Guardian.

Topping the list of nominations announced yesterday were Trois Souvenirs de ma Jeunesse (My Golden Days), the story of an anthropologist in Tajikistan directed by Arnaud Desplechin, which is up for 11 awards including best film and director, and Xavier Giannoli’s opera singer biopic Marguerite, which is the French entry for best foreign language picture at the Academy awards and also has 11 César nominations.

Also among the frontrunners is Dheepan, directed by Jacques Audiard, a story of Sri Lankan refugees in France that won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes film festival and has nine César award nominations.

Depardieu, 67, and Huppert, 62, have both been nominated for their roles as a grief-stricken couple reuniting for a trip through California’s Death Valley in Valley of Love.

They are the most-nominated actors in the history of the Césars, with 32 nods between them. Depardieu has won twice and Huppert once.

Deneuve, 72, is nominated for her supporting role as a judge in gritty urban drama La Tête Haute (Standing Tall).

/By AzerTac/