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| François Ozon receives his Lumière Award for Best Film for The Stranger Photo: Richard Mowe |
Two black and white films - François Ozon’s The Stranger and Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague - scooped the top prizes at the Lumiere Awards last night (Sunday) in Paris.
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| Léa Drucker was named Best Actress for Case 137 at the Lumière Awards Photo: Richard Mowe |
The Stranger, a stylish adaptation of the classic novel by Albert Camus, already was a front runner with nominations in six categories. It was named Best Film while actor Benjamin Voison picked up Best Actor for his role as the protagonist Meursault. The photography by Manuel Dacosse who shot in colour and digitally imposed monochrome, deservedly was awarded Best Cinematography.
Ozon remarked that the success of his films outside France was due in no small measure to the support of international critics.
American director Richard Linklater, who remained home for work reasons in Austin (Texas), was the other main recipient of the evening, picking up Best Director alongside actor Guillaume Marbeck who was named Best Male Revelation for his performance as Jean-Luc Godard in a riff around the New Wave revolution.
The awards which are voted on by the members of the foreign press working in France and often considered as France’s answer to Hollywood’s Golden Globes, reflected a much more egalitarian sweep compared to the other weekend prizes ceremony the European Film Awards in Berlin in which Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value cleaned up.
Popular choices in the female acting stakes were Léa Drucker for her stunning performance in Dominique Moll’s Case 137 (as an investigating officer probing violence to a teenage protester) and newcomer Nadia Melliti for Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister (she burst on the scene with a surprise Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival last year, playing a French-Algerian teen struggling to reconcile her cultural identity with her emerging sexuality).
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| Benjamin Voisin was named Best Actor for his role in The Stranger (Photo Richard Mowe) Photo: Richard Mowe |
Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent was named Best International Coproduction with input from France, the Netherlands, Germany and Brazil. The film already has been chosen as Brazil’s Oscar contender and it also won Best Non-English Language Film and a Best Actor prize for Wagner Moura at the Golden Globes.
Ugo Bienvenu, who had come hot foot from Berlin, received Best Animation Feature award for Arco, which was named Best European Animated Feature in Berlin. An enthusiastic response greeted Stéphane Demoustier for his award for Best Screenplay for The Great Arch.
The glittering Lumière ceremony was held at the Institute of the Arab World and concluded with a cocktail party for the winners and attendees held on the top floor overlooking the Seine. Founded in 1995 by British journalist Edward Behr and French producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, the annual Prix des Lumières are often regarded as an accurate precursor to the French Oscars, the Césars, whose nominations will be revealed on 28 January, to be followed by the ceremony itself on 27 February.
The complete 2026 Lumière Winners:
Best Film
- The Stranger, François Ozon
Best Direction
- Richard Linklater for Nouvelle Vague
Best Screenplay
- Stéphane Demoustier for The Great Arch
Best Documentary
- Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, Sepideh Farsi
Best Animation
- Arco, Ugo Bienvenu
Best Actress
- Léa Drucker for Case 137
Best Actor
- Benjamin Voisin for The Stranger
Female Revelation
- Nadia Melliti for The Little Sister
Male Revelation
- Guillaume Marbeck for Nouvelle Vague
Best First Film
- Pauline Loquès for Nino
Best International Coproduction
- The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho
Cinematography
- Manuel Dacosse for The Stranger
Best Music
- Warren Ellis, Dom La Nena et Rosemary Standley for Whispers In The Woods
Richard Mowe is a member of L’Académie des Lumières.
