Oscar season may be over, but there’s still some (understood) hype about the nominated movies and also the ceremony itself. Viola Davis gave an impassioned acceptance speech, Meryl Streep received a standing ovation for her “overrated” career, the Jimmy Kimmel/Matt Damon feud continued, political talk was able to sneak its way in, and we even got an appearance by the Delorean from Back to the Future.

LGBT groups are elated that a film following the struggles of a gay black man has been brought to the spotlight and was presented with the Best Motion Picture award — and who could forget the fiasco when “La La Land” was announced as the winner?

All of Hollywood celebrated the previous year in cinema, but only 2 nights before, French filmmakers, actors, writers, and workers met in the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris to honor their art. Les César du cinéma (the César Award) is the equivalent of the Oscars and have been awarded yearly since 1796.

 

Why César? The award is named after César Baldaccini, the sculptor of the awarded statue.

 

There are 25 awards focusing on categories we’re pretty familiar with: Best Director, Best Adaptation, Best Costume Design… The César Awards have a few categories they’ve retired: Best Fiction Short, Best Producer, Best Film from the European Union, and Best Poster, to name a few.

Just as with the Oscars, the big award of the night is Best Motion Picture. For the 42nd César Awards, 7 films were nominated for this category, and today we’re going to take a little peek at all of them.

 

Et les 7 nominations sont… (and the 7 nominees are)

Victoria

English title: In Bed with Victoria

 

Ma Loute

English title: Slack Boy

 

 

Divines

 

This movie is available on Netflix!

 

Elle

 

 

Frantz

 

 

Les Innocentes

English Title: The Innocents

 

Mal de pierres

English title: From the Land of the Moon

 

 

« Et le César est attribué à… » (And the César goes to…)

 

Elle!

Elle was nominated for 11 César awards but only walked away with two.

Isabelle Huppert, star of Elle, was also nominated for an Oscar for the same role. She was up against Ruth Negga, Natalie Portman, Emma Stone, and Meryl Streep.