César 2021: are there more women in competition this year?<

What place for women in the César 2021 nominations? While the Academy is changing and implementing reforms, particularly in the composition of its office, now equal and democratically elected, has this had an effect on the first round of voting for the Césars? Frankly, the answer is no. The figures are stagnating, even falling in some categories.

It must of course be taken into account that the year was very special, due to the pandemic, with far fewer feature films in the running (they were precisely 125, according to the accounts made by the Academy) and the absence of female directors. whose names are often associated with the Caesars. The question nevertheless deserves to be asked, and an inventory of these data from one year to the next is essential, while Tonie Marshall remains to this day the only female filmmaker to have won the César de the best director, for Vénus Beauté Institut, 21 years ago.

If we disregard the gendered categories (best actress, best female supporting role and female revelation), here is the balance sheet category by category:

Best film: 1 / 5 (in 2020, there was 1 citation for 7 nominated films)

Best director: 1 / 5 (in 2020, there was 1 citation for 7 nominated films)

Best first film: 2/5 (in 2020, there were 2 citations for 5 nominated films)

Best documentary: 1 / 5 (in 2020, there were 2 citations for 5 nominated films)

Best foreign film: 0 / 5 (in 2020, there were 0 citations for 5 nominated films)

Best Original Screenplay: 2 / 7 screenwriters nominated (These numbers include mixed co-writing, which is one more woman than in 2020)

Best adaptation: 1 / 6 screenwriters nominated (these are the same statistics as in 2020, namely only one screenwriter nominated in a mixed tandem)

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Best costumes: 5 / 6 costume designers (in 2020, there were 4 women out of 5 nominees)

Best sets: 0 / 5 (score of 0 women in 2020 as well)

Best animated film: 0 / 3 (score of 0 women in 2020 as well)

Best Original Score: 0/5 (score of 0 female in 2020 as well)

Best short film: 4/5 (in 2020, they were 2 women in a mixed tandem)

Best photography: 0 / 6 cinematographers (in 2020, Claire Mathon was the only woman nominated and was awarded the César)

Best editing: 3/5 (in 2020, they were 3 out of 6)

Best sound: 4 / 16 engineers nominated (in 2020, 1 woman out of 18 sound engineers nominated)

This represents 26 women appointed out of a total of 93 men and women combined, excluding gender categories. This brings the total to 41 women nominated if we include best actress, best supporting actress and female revelation, and a total of 108 men and women combined.

For the record, 2000 is the only year during which parity was achieved, in terms of awards, with 9 out of 18 César awarded to women (excluding the César d'honneur). It was this same edition that consecrated the late Tonie Marshall, the only woman to have won the César for best director.