Césars: the 50/50 collective deplores the absence of women in the Best Director category

The day after the announcement of the nominations for the Césars (Satellifacts, January 25), the 50/50 collective deplored the "total absence" of women in the category of Best Director, as well as the "lack of representation" in that for Best Film, where Valeria Bruni Tedeschi is the only woman nominated, for Forever Young.

Some observers of the seventh art have notably underlined the absence in this category of Alice Diop, director of Saint-Omer, Grand Prize winner at the Venice Film Festival and acclaimed by critics, or of Rebecca Zlotowski for Other People's Children, or of Mia Hansen -Løve with One Fine Morning or of Blandine Lenoir for Annie Colère.

It is a "step backwards," when "we would have dreamed of distinguishing ourselves from the Oscars," wrote the collective, while across the Atlantic, there is only one woman in the category of best film (Sarah Polley for Women Talking) and none for Best Director. “Last year, the Academy of Oscars was criticized for having too white a competition. This year too masculine. The Césars 2023 combine this double invisibilization," further stated the collective on social media.

It also notes that women accounted for 14% of nominations in the best achievement category in 2021, 43% in 2022, and 0% this year. The collective also reiterated that Tonie Marshall is the only woman to have received the César for Best Director, in 2000, for Venus Beauty Institute.