‘Stop applauding rapists on the run’: entire French Cesar Academy board quits after Polanksi row
- Roman Polanski has been wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl since 1978 but has continued to direct films
- The inclusion of Polanski’s film on the Cesars’ shortlist was condemned by France’s equality minister, women’s groups and film critics
The entire board of the Cesar Academy, which awards France’s equivalent of the Oscars, resigned on Thursday just two weeks ahead of its gala ceremony after more than 200 actors, producers, directors and movie personalities demanded “profound reform”.
The academy had come under fire after Roman Polanski’s new film An Officer and a Spy topped the list of nominations for this year’s Cesar awards, which will be handed out on February 28.
“To honour those men and women who made cinema happen in 2019, to find calm and ensure that the festival of film remains just that, a festival, the board … has unanimously decided to resign,” the academy said in a statement. “This collective decision will allow complete renewal of the board.”
A general meeting will be held after the upcoming awards ceremony to elect a new board and management who will work on implementing reforms and modernisation, it said.
More than 200 actors, producers, directors and movie personalities denounced the “dysfunction” at the academy and “opaqueness” in its accounts, in an open letter on Wednesday.
They also complained that the founding statutes of the Cesars had not changed in a long time and that the academy’s nearly 5,000 members do not get a vote or a say in its decisions.