UPDATE 02.26.07: The German film The Lives Of Others won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

CÉSAR DU MEILLEUR FILM DOCUMENTAIRE
You Will Laugh. You Will Cry. (If You Are French, You Will Mostly Cry.)

The film Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac was awarded the 2007 César for best documentary last night.

See our earlier post for background.

Césars were awarded yesterday to steal a march on the American Oscars being awarded tonight. The César, a misshapen lump of bronze, is a blatant knock-off of the Oscar, as Georges Cravenne, the drive behind the César, makes plain on the official site:

Les Oscars, je crois sont nés en 1927. J'avais alors 13 ans, et depuis cet âge (aujourd'hui très lointain !), j'ai toujours été obsédé par l'existence de ce personnage emblématique, non pas de chair et d'os, mais de bronze et de dorure, dont la réputation était planétaire. Jalousie ? Emulation ? Toujours est-il que l'idée de créer un équivalent français a germé en moi...

[The Oscars, I believe were born in 1927. I was then 13 years old, and since that age (today very remote!), I was always obsessed by the existence of this emblematic character, not of flesh and bone, but of bronze and gilding, whose reputation was planetary. Jealousy? Emulation? Always is this idea to create a French equivalent growing in me...]

The film Indigènes by Algerian-French director Rachid Bouchareb, out of nine nominations, won a single César for best original screenplay. It has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Though 90% of the financing came from France, Mr. Bouchareb chose to register as an Algerian director, making the film an Algerian entry. We wonder why.

PFFT (What is this?): Knock-off hochet 3 | Rayonnement français 0