Justine Triet’s twisty legal drama Anatomy of a Fall is the frontrunner for the Lumières Awards, France‘s answer to the Golden Globes, with six nominations, including for best film and best director.
Triet also picked up a nomination for best screenplay, shared with Anatomy co-writer Arthur Harari. German lead Sandra Hüller picked up a best actress nomination. Milo Machado Graner, who plays Hüller’s son in the film, was nominated in the best male newcomer category. Simon Beaufils received a Lumières nomination for best cinematography.
The film, which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year, follows a successful German novelist (Hüller) who may or may not have killed her less-successful French writer husband. Anatomy of a Fall is fresh off its triumph at the European Film Awards on Dec. 9, where Triet’s drama took five trophies, including best film.
Despite the film’s critical and commercial success — it has grossed around $10 million in France and close to $20 million worldwide to date, including almost $4 million for Neon in the U.S. — Anatomy was passed over as France’s official nominee for the Oscars in the best international feature category, with France’s Oscar selection committee going instead for Tran Anh Hùng’s foodie period romance The Taste of Things, starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, which IFC has released in the U.S.
Also nominated for best film at the Lumières include Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, another legal drama, though this one a dramatization of a real-life miscarriage of justice: the 1975 trial of French leftist radical Pierre Goldman, who was subject to police prejudice and antisemitism; Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer, about a woman who begins a fiery love affair with her teenage stepson; Thomas Cailley’s speculative drama The Animal Kingdom, an adventure story in which people begin literally turning into animals; and Son Of Ramses, an urban thriller from Clément Cogitore about a con-man clairvoyant. Breillat, Cailley, Cogitore and Kahn all picked up best-directing nominations as well.
Going up against Hüller in the best actress category are Léa Drucker for Last Summer; Virginie Efira, playing a single mother struggling to keep her family together in Delphine Deloget’s All to Play For; Hafsia Herzi, who stars as a midwife who kidnaps her friend’s newborn baby in Iris Kaltenbäck’s directorial debut The Rapture; and French cinema legend Catherine Deneuve for her performance as former French first-lady Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac in Léa Domenach’s Bernadette.
Best actor contenders include Arieh Worthalter for playing Pierre Goldman in The Goldman Case; Karim Leklou as a man under assault from everyone and everything in Stéphan Castang’s high-concept social satire Vincent Must Die; Vincent Lacoste as a wealthy intellectual who falls for a traumatized woman in Katell Quillévéré’s post-war melodrama Along Came Love; Melvil Poupaud as a toxic boyfriend in Valérie Donzelli’s relationship thriller Just the Two of Us; and German actor Franz Rogowski as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion who meets a rebel in the Niger Delta in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s feature debut Disco Boy.
Founded in 1995, the Lumières Awards, honoring the best in French cinema of the previous year, are voted on by members of the international press working in France.
The winners of the 29th Lumières will be announced in Paris on Jan. 22, 2024.
Below is the full list of nominees for the 29th Lumières Awards.
Best Film
Anatomy of a Fall, dir. Justine Triet
Last Summer, dir. Catherine Breillat
Son of Ramses, dir. Clément Cogitore
The Goldman Case, dir. Cédric Kahn
The Animal Kingdom dir. Thomas Cailley
Best Director
Catherine Breillat for Last Summer
Thomas Cailley for The Animal Kingdom
Clément Cogitore for Son of Ramses
Cédric Kahn for The Goldman Case
Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall
Best Screenplay
Thomas Cailley, Pauline Munier for The Animal Kingdom
Quentin Dupieux for Yannick
Cédric Kahn, Nathalie Hertzberg for The Goldman Case
Iris Kaltenbäck for The Rapture
Justine Triet, Arthur Harari for Anatomy of a Fall
Best Documentary
Four Daughters, dir. Kaouther Ben Hania
Little Girl Blue, dir. Mona Achache
Our Body, dir. Claire Simon
La Rivière, dir. Dominique Marchais
On the Adamant, dir. Nicolas Philibert
Best Animated Film
No Dogs or Italians Allowed, dir. Alain Ughetto
Chicken for Linda!, dir. Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach
Mars Express, dir. Jérémie Périn
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, dir. Pierre Földes
The Siren, dir. Sepideh Farsi
Best Actress
Catherine Deneuve for Bernadette
Léa Drucker for Last Summer
Virginie Efira for All to Play For
Hafsia Herzi for The Rapture
Sandra Hüller for Anatomy of a Fall
Best Actor
Vincent Lacoste for Along Came Love
Karim Leklou for Vincent Must Die
Melvil Poupaud for Just the Two of Us
Franz Rogowski for Disco Boy
Arieh Worthalter for The Goldman Case
Best Female Newcomer
Suzanne Jouannet for La voie royale
Louise Mauroy-Panzani for Àma Gloria
Park Ji-Min for Return to Seoul
Claire Pommet for Spirit of Ecstasy
Ella Rumpf for Marguerite’s Theorem
Best Male Newcomer
Arthur Harari for The Goldman Case
Samuel Kircher for Last Summer
Milo Machado Graner for Anatomy of a Fall
Raphaël Quenard for Chien de la Casse
Abdulah Sissoko for Le Jeune Imam
Best First Film
Bernadette, dir. Léa Domenach
Chien de la Casse, dir. Jean-Baptiste Durand
Disco Boy, dir. Giacomo Abbruzzese
The Rapture, dir. Iris Kaltenbäck
Vincent Must Die, dir. Stéphan Castang
Best International Co-Production
The Blue Caftan, dir. Maryam Touzani
Dry Grasses, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Lost Country, dir. Vladimir Perišić
Hounds, dir. Kamal Lazraq
The Old Oak, dir. Ken Loach
Best Cinematography
Simon Beaufils for Anatomy of a Fall
David Cailley for The Animal Kingdom
Hélène Louvart for Disco Boy
Jonathan Ricquebourg for The Taste of Things
Sylvain Verdet for Son of Ramses
Best Film Score
Amine Bouhafa for Four Daughters
Clément Ducol for Chicken for Linda!
Andrea Laszlo de Simone for The Animal Kingdom
Chloé Thévenin for The Mountain
Vitalic for Disco Boy
