‘The Count of Monte Cristo,’ ‘Beating Hearts,’ ‘Emilia Pérez’ Lead France’s César Awards Nominations

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo has topped the nominations for France’s César Awards, followed by Gilles Lellouche’s modern Romeo and Juliet tale Beating Hearts co-starring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos and Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury prize-winning musical film Emilia Pérez was next with 12, following its awards season domination of four Golden Globes, European Film Awards sweep, and leading the 2025 Oscar race with 13 nominations.

In the Best Actress race, both Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldaña are nominated for Emilia Pérez. In races leading up to the Oscars, Gascón has been nominated in lead while Saldaña has been nominated and won the Golden Globe in supporting. The pair, along with co-stars Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, shared the Best Actress award at Cannes last summer.

Other frontrunners include Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with eight nominations each, followed by film good movie The Marching Band, which has enjoyed a strong box office run over the Christmas period and into the new year.

The Best Foreign-Language Film category delivered nominations for Anora, The Seed of The Sacred Fig Tree, The Apprentice, The Substance and The Zone of Interest (which was eligible due to its France release date).

A total of 626 films are eligible for the French cinema focused awards this year, with 4,951 members invited to vote in the first round, running from January 2 to 28. A second round of voting runs from February 5 to 28.

The Cesar Awards will take place at the Olympia Concert Hall in Paris on February 28 with Catherine Deneuve serving as president of the ceremony. As previously announced, Julia Roberts will receive an honorary César Award.

Here is the complete list of nominations.

Best Film

• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Emilia Pérez
• The Marching Band
• Souleymane’s Story
• Misericordia

Best Director

• Gilles Lellouche for Beating Hearts
• Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière for The Count Of Monte Cristo
• Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez
• Boris Lojkine for Souleymane’s Story
• Alain Guiraudie for Misericordia

Best Original Screenplay

• Stéphane Demoustier for Borgo
• Emmanuel Courcol and Irène Muscari for The Marching Band
• Boris Lojkine et Delphine Agut for Souleymane’s Story
• Alain Guiraudie and Misericordia
• Louise Courvoisier and Théo Abadie for Holy Cow

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière for The Count Of Monte-Cristo
• Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez
• Michel Hazanavicius and Jean-Claude Grumberg for The Most Precious Of Cargoes

Best Actress

• Adèle Exarchopoulos, Beating Hearts
• Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
• Hafsia Herzi, Borgo
• Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
• Hélène Vincent, When Fall Is Coming

Best Actor

• François Civil for Beating Hearts
• Benjamin Lavernhe for The Marching Band
• Karim Leklou for Jim’s Story
• Pierre Niney for The Count of Monte-Cristo
• Tahar Rahim for Monsieur Aznavour

Best Supporting Actress

• Élodie Bouchez for Beating Hearts
• Anaïs Demoustier for The Count of Monte Cristo
• Catherine Frot for Misericordia
• Nina Meurisse for Souleymane’s Story
• Sarah Suco for The Marching Band

Best Supporting Actor

• David Alaya for Misericordia
• Bastien Bouillon for The Count of Monte Cristo
• Alain Chabat for Beating Hearts
• Jacques Develay for Misericordia
• Laurent Lafitte for The Count of Monte Cristo

Female Revelation

• Maïwène Barthelemy for Holy Cow
• Malou Khebizi for Wild Diamond
• Megan Northam for Rabia
• Mallory Wanecque for Beating Hearts
• Souheila Yacoub for Planet B

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Male Revelation

• Abou Sangare for Souleymane’s Story
• Adam Bessa for Ghost Trail
• Malik Frikah for Beating Hearts
• Félix Kysil for Misericordia
• Pierre Lottin for The Marching Band

Best Animated Feature

• Flow by Gint Zilbalodis
• The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius
• Savages by Claude Barras

Best Documentary

• The Belle from Gaza by Yolande Zauberman.
• Bye Bye Tiberias by Lina Soualem
• Dahomey by Mati Diop
• Ernest Cole: Lost and Found by Raoul Peck
• The Bertrand’s Farm by Gilles Perret
• Madame Hofmann by Sébastien Lifshitz

Best First Film

• Wild Diamond by Agathe Riedinger
• Ghost Trail by Jonathan Millet
• The Kingdom by Julien Colonna
• A Little Something Extra by Artus
• Holy Cow by Louise Courvoisier

Best Foreign Film

• Anora by Sean Baker
• The Seed of The Sacred Fig Tree by Mohammad Rasoulof
• The Apprentice by Ali Abbasi
• The Substance by Coralie Fargeat
• The Zone Of Interest by Jonathan Glazer

Best Sound

• Cédric Deloche, Gwennolé Le Borgne, Jon Goc and Marc Doisne for Beating Hearts
• David Rit, Gwennolé Le Borgne, Olivier Touche, Laure-Anne Darras, Marion Papinot, Marc Doisne and Samuel Delorme for The Count of Monte Cristo
• Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta for Emilia Pérez
• Pascal Armant, Sandy Notarianni and Niels Barletta for The Marching Band
• Marc-Olivier Brullé, Pierre Bariaud, Charlotte Butrak and Samuel Aïchoun for Souleymane’s Story

Cinematography

• Laurent Tangy for Beating Hearts
• Nicolas Bolduc for The Count of Monte Cristo
• Paul Guilhaume for Emilia Pérez
• Tristan Galand for Souleymane’s Story
• Claire Mathon for Misericordia

Best Editing

• Simon Jacquet for Beating Hearts
• Célia Lafitedupont for The Count of Monte Cristo
• Juliette Welfling for Emilia Pérez
• Guerric Catala for The Marching Band
• Xavier Sirven for Souleymane’s Story

Best Costumes

• Isabelle Pannetier for Beating Hearts
• Thierry Delettre for The Count of Monte Cristo
• Virginie Montel for Emilia Pérez
• Isabelle Mathieu for Monsieur Aznavour
• Anaïs Romand for The Divine Sarah Bernhardt

Best Production Design

• Jean-Philippe Moreau for Beating Hearts
• Stéphane Taillasson for The Count of Monte Cristo
• Emmanuelle Duplay for Emilia Pérez
• Stéphane Rozenbaum for Monsieur Aznavour
• Olivier Radot for The Divine Sarah Bernhardt

Best Special Effects

• Cédric Fayolle, Hugues Namur and Émilien Lazaron for The Beast
• Olivier Cauwet for The Count of Monte Cristo
• Cédric Fayolle for Emilia Pérez
• Stéphane Dittoo for Monsieur Aznavour

Best Short Animation

• Beurk! by Loïc Espuche
• Gigi by Cynthia Calvi
• Papillon by Florence Miailhe

Best Short Documentary

• Southern Brides by Elena López Riera
• Little Spartacus by Sara Ganem
• A Heart and Other Lost Dreams of Beirut, Maya Abdul-Malak

Best Short Fiction

• Clamor by Salomé Da Souza
• Ce qui appartient à César by Violette Gitton
• The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Nebojša Slijepčević
• Queen Size by Alice Besson

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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