France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, which organises the country’s César awards, has called for calm from the film industry after some 200 French stars and filmmakers put out an open letter on the website of Le Monde newspaper on Monday calling for “a complete overhaul” of the body, reports Screen Daily.
”We call for calm so that the smooth running of the 45th César ceremony is not put in danger,” the organisation, also known as the César Academy, said in a statement on Tuesday morning.
The signatories included actors Omar Sy, Chiara Mastroianni, Léa Seydoux, Roschdy Zem and Bérénice Bejo, and directors Céline Sciamma, Michel Hazanavicius and Arnaud Desplechin, all of whom are paid-up members of the body.
They said the time had come for the democratisation of the 45-year-old organisation, which is run by the unelected, charitable Association for the Promotion of Cinema (APC) which appoints the board of directors.
The signatories complained that aside from the right to vote on the César awards, their membership gave them no say in running the body or the annual César ceremony
In response, the academy said on Tuesday its board of directors was going to call on National Cinema Centre (CNC) president Dominique Boutonnat to appoint a mediator to oversee the reform of the body and its statutes, which date back to its creation in 1974 by producer Georges Cravenne.
The organisation and its long-time president Alain Terzian have been in hot water since mid-January when it came to light filmmakers Claire Denis and Virginie Despentes had been omitted from the guestlist for its annual Dîner des Révélations event, focused on emerging talent.
As part of the initiative, the young guests are invited to nominate an established cinema professional they would like to accompany them to the dinner as their sponsor. Terzian was left red-faced when it emerged he had nixed requests for Denis and Despentes.
He put out a statement apologising for the gaffe but the incident prompted scrutiny of the body’s governance, how it runs its finances, the membership recruitment process and the lack of gender parity and diversity within its ranks.
“On the day of the Dîner des Révélations, we learned that two of the female sponsors chosen by the young actors to accompany them had been refused by the César Academy in an arbitrary, even discriminatory way,” the open letter from the 200 French film personalities read.
“Today, it seems that the refusal of these two female sponsors is just one aspect of the general state of dysfunction at the Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques as well as the charitable association [the APC] which runs it,” it continued.