3 Animated Features, 4 Shorts Nominated For France’s César Awards

The César Awards, France’s highest film honor, announced nominees this morning for its 44th annual edition.

The awards, which will be presented February 22 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, include categories that honor French animated features and shorts.

In the feature category, the three nominees are:

• Asterix: Le Secret de la potion magique (Asterix : The Secret of the Magic Potion)
  Directed by Alexandre Astier and Louis Clichy
  Produced by Philippe Bony
  
• Dilili à Paris
  Directed by Michel Ocelot
  Produced by Christophe Rossignon and Philip Boëffard
  
• Pachamama
  Directed by Juan Antin
  Produced by Didier Brunner, Damien Brunner, and Olivier de Bannes
  

It’s definitely an eclectic group of films. It includes the super-successful cg adaptation of Asterix, which was France’s highest-grossing homegrown animated film last year and 10th highest-grossing overall film at the 2018 French box office, and the mixed-media children’s film Dilili in Paris from French animation icon Michel Ocelot (Kirikou and the Sorceress, Azur and Asmar). The latter, which has an educational bent, is a period piece set in Belle Époque-era Paris and follows the adventures of a young stowaway named Dilili who arrives from New Caledonia — a South Pacific conquest of Napoleon.

The third nominee, Pachamama, is a children’s film set in 16th century Peru about a ten-year-old boy who wants to become a shaman. Argentinean Juan Antin made the stylized cg production, rooted in indigenous aesthetics, as a France/Luxembourg/Canada co-production. Esteemed French animation producer Didier Brunner (Ernest & Celestine, The Secret of Kells, Triplets of Belleville, Kirikou and the Sorceress) was involved through his company Folivari.

For more on Asterix, read our interview with co-director Louis Clichy. Variety has an interview with Ocelot about Dilili.

On the shorts side, four films were nominated. Last year’s winner, Pépé le morse (Grandpa Walrus), was shortlisted for this year’s Academy Award, but didn’t make the final cut. This year’s nominees are:

• Au Coeur des ombres (Between the Shadows)
  Directed by Alice Eça Guimarães and Mónica Santos
  
• La mort, père & fils (The Death, Dad & Son)
  Directed by Denis Walgenwtiz and Winshluss

  

• Raymonde ou L’évasion verticale
  Directed by Sarah Van Den Boom
  
• Vilaine Fille (Wicked Girl)
  Directed by Ayce Kartal