This year’s Cesar Awards (essentially the French Oscars) were already controversial prior to airing due to the French Film Academy’s choice to give Roman Polanski twelve nominations for his controversial film “An Officer And A Spy”.
In an effort to avoid embarrassing public censure, none of the team who worked on the Polanski film attended the ceremony. That didn’t stop incidents from happening including several hundred women’s rights protesters brandishing signs outside the ceremony on Friday night.
When Polanski was awarded the Best Director prize inside, several female attendees immediately left the ceremony in disgust and protest including “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” actress Adele Haenel and director Celine Sciamma. Haenel was heard leaving the venue sarcastically applauding and shouting “Bravo, pedophilia, bravo.”
Haenel has been an active voice in the #MeToo movement, recently speaking about being sexually abused by French director Christophe Ruggia when she was 12. Due to the ‘Polanski problem,’ the entire largely-male Cesar Academy board of directors announced their collective resignation earlier this month, though they didn’t step down until this weekend.
“Bravo, pedophilia!” Adèle Haenel, star of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and the film’s director Céline Sciamma walking out after child rapist Roman #Polanski won the best director award at the Césars, #France’s equivalent to the Oscars. h/t @alucarda
— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) February 29, 2020
Police pushed back demonstrators who pulled down a safety barrier outside a Paris theatre, protesting against Roman Polanski's win at the Cesar Awards.
More on this story here: https://t.co/Jn0fjgoU7x pic.twitter.com/jpUPRKByoo
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 29, 2020
Source: EuroNews
