The Artist Triumphs At Frances Csar Awards With Surprises In The Mix

UPDATED: The Artist was the big winner at the 37th Csar Awards tonight in Paris with prizes for best picture, director, cinematography, score, art direction and actress for Brnice Bejo, who accepted her prize in one of the evening’s most moving moments. Best Actor Oscar-tipped Jean Dujardin, however, lost out to Untouchable‘s Omar Sy, who starred in the feel-good film that was 2011′s biggest hit in France and is now the third-biggest grosser of all time here. I watched the ceremony at a viewing party thrown by Wild Bunch, the international sales company behind such winners and nominees asArtist, Poliss and Declaration Of War. Some of the industry-laden crowd were unsurprised by Sy’s win over Dujardin, saying they sensed that even the somewhat staid French Acadmie was reticent to let the tireless Sy go without recognition. The soire was held in Wild Bunch’s movie theater-cum-lounge near the Pantheon with the sales teams, distributors and production folk who worked on their films plus other industry types– and filmmaker Gaspar Noe, too. The gathering had several horses in the various races but took it all in Gallic stride, cheering each other on, catcalling and yawning at the boring parts (and there were quite a few — the show tried to pull a Billy Crystal at the outset, inserting host Antoine de Caunes into the nominated films to a pretty muted reaction). Among the other surprises of the night were a win in the best original screenplay category for L’Exercice De L’Etat‘s Pierre Schoeller, who beat out Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist as well as other favored nominees. Among the highlights was Honorary Csar winner Kate Winslet, who had been charming the local press in the past days saying it was so much better to receive an award she knew she was going to win. Roman Polanski had been expected to bestow the honor but it was her Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry who was on hand — after host de Caunes congratulated Winslet for being against plastic surgery via her “message”, which according to him is “Don’t fuck with Mother Nature.” In accepting, Winslet made a note to particularly thank her Carnage director Roman Polanski; she later accepted the adapted screenplay prize for Polanski for Carnage. With the kudos pretty well spread out, one attendee this evening told me it wasn’t such a big deal if The Artist didn’t win every prize at home: “It’s more imortant it wins at the Oscars. It’s good for the Csars to pull a rabbit out of the hat sometimes.” Following is a full list of the winners: Best Picture The Artist, producer: Thomas Langmann Director Michel Hazanavicius The Artist Actress Brnice Bejo, The Artist Actor Omar Sy, Untouchable Supporting Actress Carmen Maura, Les Femmes Du 6e Etage Supporting Actor Michel Blanc, LExercice De LEtat Original Screenplay Pierre Schoeller LExercice De LEtat Adapted Screenplay Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski Carnage Newcomer (Female) – TIE Naidra Ayadi, Polisse Clotilde Hesme, Angle Et Tony Newcomer (Male) Grgory Gadebois, Angle Et Tony Original Score Ludovic Bource The Artist Sound Olivier Hespel, Julie Brenta, Jean-Pierre Laforce LExercice De LEtat Cinematography Guillaume Schiffman The Artist Editing Laure Gardette, Yann Dedet Polisse Costumes Anas Romand House Of Tolerance Art Direction Laurence Bennett The Artist First Film Le Cochon De Gaza, director: Sylvain Estibal Foreign Film A Separation, director: Asghar Farhadi Animated Film Le Chat Du Rabbin, directors: Joann Sfar, Antoine Delesvaux Documentary Tous Au Larzac, director: Christian Rouaud Short Film LAccordeur, director: Olivier Treiner (Winslet photo: Getty Images)