They will only celebrate their 50th anniversary once: this year, the César Awards were set to make a big splash. The Academy of Arts and Techniques of Cinema has chosen Catherine Deneuve, a monument of French cinema, to represent this very special edition. The 80-year-old actress will preside over the 50th edition of the awards ceremony, which will take place on February 28, 2025, on the stage of the Olympia.
Qui de mieux qu’une actrice hors norme pour fêter les 50 ans des César ? ✨
— Académie des César (@Les_Cesar) September 23, 2024
L'Académie des César et @canalplus ont le grand plaisir d’annoncer que Catherine Deneuve présidera la 50e Cérémonie des César, le vendredi 28 février prochain, sur la scène de l’@OLYMPIAHALL.
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« She embodies the very essence of the seventh art »
In a press release published on Monday, September 23, the Academy shared the reasons for its choice. « Who better than a remarkable actress to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Césars ? Thanks to her exceptional talent, unique career, and timeless grace, Catherine Deneuve embodies the very essence of the seventh art », it writes.
This place in the seventh art has been built by the actress for nearly 70 years. With a remarkable portfolio of over a hundred roles, she is one of the iconic faces of the musical film genre, thanks to her appearances in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and Donkey Skin (1970).
Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac on the set of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967), from Agnès Varda's Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans (1993)
— Le Cinéma (@lecinema_) January 8, 2020
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A Role Tailored for Catherine Deneuve
The face of this 50th edition, Catherine Deneuve succeeds Valérie Lemercier, who was the ceremony president in 2023. It's a role where she should feel particularly comfortable, since she has already taken on this role in the past, back in 1983, during the 8th edition of the Césars. Alain Delon, who presided over it in 1995 and 2000, was the only actor to have been chosen twice until now. This is a tribute to the iconic actress, who has been nominated a total of 12 times for the César for Best Actress and has won two statuettes for The Last Metro by François Truffaut and Indochine by Régis Wargnier. This year, she will once again have the responsibility to open and close the ceremony.
