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| The awards keep coming for Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez with Karla Sofia Gascón named best actress at the Lumière Awards in Paris last night, plus a haul of four other gongs. Photo: UniFrance |
Often dubbed France’s answer to the Golden Globes, the Lumière Awards were bestowed last night at a ceremony at the Forum des Images in the heart of Paris. The event saw Jacques Audiard’s much trumpeted drugs cartel musical Emilia Pérez sweep the board with five awards.
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| A couple of swells: Clement Faveau (best male newcomer for Holy Cow) and right Abou Sangare (best actor for The Story of Souleymane) at the Hotel de Ville reception following the Lumière Awards ceremony. Photo: Richard Mowe |
The film’s director and cast were busy in the US as part of the Oscars campaign but sent suitably gushing messages to the organisers, who include journalists, based in France, from more than 38 countries.
The film team was basking in the glory of a haul of awards for Best Film, Director, Script, and Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón, as well as music for Camille and Clement Ducol. Gascón plays the cartel leader Manitas del One, who fakes her own death in order to live as a trans woman.
The film has won countless awards since its Cannes début earlier last year when it scored a jury prize and award for its powerful female ensemble cast. The Lumière recognition follows four wins at the Golden Globes with the Oscars beckoning just around the corner.
Other notable awards at the Lumières include a Best Actor nod for Abou Sangare, who stars as an immigrant trying to navigate his away around Paris as a bike courier while trying to gain asylum, in The Story Of Souleymane. The film premiered in Cannes (Un Certain Regard), where Sangare won another Best Actor accolade. After the ceremony, Sangare was besieged by congratulatory fans at a reception given at the Hotel de Ville (Paris’s town hall).
Best Feature Début went to first-time filmmaker Louise Courvoisier for Holy Cow, set in the Jura region of rural France - and the director’s home turf. Clement Faveau, who plays a young man suddenly plunged into taking care of his little sister after the death of their father, was named Best Male Newcomer. The film will be released in the UK by Glasgow-based Conic distributors and was premièred as part of the French Film Festival UK in November. Unfazed, Faveau brought the house down when he admitted that he couldn't wait to get back to feeding his chickens at home on the farm.
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| Karla Sofia Gascón, prize-winning star of Emilia Pérez Photo: Richard Mowe |
The award for Best Female Newcomer was bestowed on Ghjuvanna Benedetti, who stars in Julien Colonna’s semi-autobiographical crime drama The Kingdom, also set for UK release. She plays Lesia, the 15-year-old daughter of a mafia boss on the run.
Mati Diop’s Dahomey garnered Best Documentary gong while a Latvian film Flow was tagged Best Animated Feature. It already has form, having trounced Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 at the Golden Globes, and now looks set for Oscar glory.
Final winners were Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian political drama The Seed Of The Sacred Fig for Best International Co-Production, and Best Cinematography was awarded to Nicolas Boldux for The Count Of Monte Cristo, a box office winner in France adapted from the Alexandre Dumas classic.
After the ceremony for the 30th edition of the awards the guests and winners streamed over to the nearby Hotel de Ville for a glittering cocktail reception including journalists attending the UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, which concludes today.
