Guillaume Gallienne’s “Me, Myself and Mum” was named the best French film of 2013 on Friday at the Cesar Awards, France’s version of the Oscars.
Although Roman Polanski won the Best Director award for “Venus in Fur” at the ceremony in Paris, Gallienne’s film dominated the awards. Gallienne himself won the best-actor award, the adapted-screenplay award and the best-first-film award for his film, which also won for editing before taking the night’s top prize.
“Me, Myself and Mum” is a comedy that debuted in the Directors Fortnight section of last year’s Cannes Film Festival. It received 10 Cesar nominations, tying for the most with the Palme d’Or winner “Blue Is the Warmest Color.”
That film received a single award, which Adele Exarchopoulos (above) won as most promising female newcomer.
The only other films to win more than one award were “9 Month Stretch” and “Michael Kohlhaas,” which won two each.
The male newcomer award went to an actor from another sexually explicit film that received U.S. distribution, Pierre Deladonchamps for “Stranger at the Lake.”
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Other acting awards went to Sandrine Kiberlain for “9 Month Stretch”, Adele Haenel for “Suzanne” and Niels Arestrup for “Quai D’Orsay.”
None of the seven Cesar nominees in the Best Film category are in the running for Oscars. “The Past” didn’t make the Oscar foreign-language shortlist, and “Blue Is the Warmest Color” wasn’t eligible in that category and wasn’t nominated in any others.
The other nominees were “9 Month Stretch,” “Stranger at the Lake,” “Jimmy P” and “Venus in Fur.”
In fact, the only Cesars category that contained any Oscar nominees was Best Foreign Film, where this year’s foreign-language nominee “The Broken Circle Breakdown” won over a field that included Woody Allen‘s “Blue Jasmine,” Alfonso Cuaron‘s “Gravity,” Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty” and Quentin Tarantino‘s “Django Unchained,” which was released in the United States in 2012 but Europe in 2013.
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In the 39-year history of the Cesars, 2012’s “The Artist” is the only film to win the top prize at that ceremony and at the Oscars.
Last year’s Cesar winner, “Amour,” won the Oscar for foreign-language film.
The winners:
Best Film: “Me, Myself and Mum”
Best Director: Roman Polanski for “Venus in Fur”
Best Foreign Film: “Alabama Monroe” (“The Broken Circle Breakdown”), director Felix Van Groeningen
Best Actress: Sandrine Kiberlain, “9 Month Stretch”
Best Actor: Guillaume Gallienne, “Me, Myself and Mum”
Best Supporting Actress: Adele Haenel, “Suzanne”
Best Supporting Actor: Neils Arestrup, “Quai d’Orsay”
Most Promising Actress (Newcomer): Adele Exarchopoulos, “Blue is the Warmest Color”
Most Promising Actor (Newcomer): Pierre Deladonchamps, “Stranger at the Lake”
Best Original Screenplay: Albert Dupontel, “9 Month Stretch”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Guillaume Gallienne, “Me, Myself and Mum”
Best Original Music: Martin Wheeler, “Michael Kohlhaas”
Best Sound: Jean-Pierre Duret, Jean Mallet and Melissa Petitjean, “Michael Kohlhaas”
Best Cinematography: Thomas Hardmeier, “The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet”
Best Editing: Valerie Deseine, “Me, Myself and Mum”
Best Costume: Pascaline Chavanne, “Renoir”
Best Production Design: Stephane Rozenbaum, “L’Ecume des Jours”
Best Documentary: “Sur le Chemin de l’Ecole,” director Pascal Plisson
Best First Film: “Me, Myself and Mum,” director Guillaume Gallienne
Best Short Film: “Avant Que de Tout Perdre,” director Xavier Legrand
Best Animated Feature Film: “Loulou l’Incroyable Secret,” director Eric Omond
Best Animated Short Film: “Mademoiselle Kiki et les Montparnos,” director Amelie Harrault