#‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Leads Lumières Awards Nominations

Justine Triet’s twisty legal drama Anatomy of a Fall is the frontrunner for the Lumières Awards, France‘s answer to the Golden Globes, with six nominations, including for best film and best director.

Triet also picked up a nomination for best screenplay, shared with Anatomy co-writer Arthur Harari. German lead Sandra Hüller picked up a best actress nomination. Milo Machado Graner, who plays Hüller’s son in the film, was nominated in the best male newcomer category. Simon Beaufils received a Lumières nomination for best cinematography.

The film, which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year, follows a successful German novelist (Hüller) who may or may not have killed her less-successful French writer husband. Anatomy of a Fall is fresh off its triumph at the European Film Awards on Dec. 9, where Triet’s drama took five trophies, including best film.

Despite the film’s critical and commercial success — it has grossed around $10 million in France and close to $20 million worldwide to date, including almost $4 million for Neon in the U.S. — Anatomy was passed over as France’s official nominee for the Oscars in the best international feature category, with France’s Oscar selection committee going instead for Tran Anh Hùng’s foodie period romance The Taste of Things, starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, which IFC has released in the U.S.

Also nominated for best film at the Lumières include Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, another legal drama, though this one a dramatization of a real-life miscarriage of justice: the 1975 trial of French leftist radical Pierre Goldman, who was subject to police prejudice and antisemitism; Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer, about a woman who begins a fiery love affair with her teenage stepson; Thomas Cailley’s speculative drama The Animal Kingdom, an adventure story in which people begin literally turning into animals; and Son Of Ramses, an urban thriller from Clément Cogitore about a con-man clairvoyant. Breillat, Cailley, Cogitore and Kahn all picked up best-directing nominations as well.

Going up against Hüller in the best actress category are Léa Drucker for Last Summer; Virginie Efira, playing a single mother struggling to keep her family together in Delphine Deloget’s All to Play For; Hafsia Herzi, who stars as a midwife who kidnaps her friend’s newborn baby in Iris Kaltenbäck’s directorial debut The Rapture; and French cinema legend Catherine Deneuve for her performance as former French first-lady Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac in Léa Domenach’s Bernadette.

Best actor contenders include Arieh Worthalter for playing Pierre Goldman in The Goldman Case; Karim Leklou as a man under assault from everyone and everything in Stéphan Castang’s high-concept social satire Vincent Must Die; Vincent Lacoste as a wealthy intellectual who falls for a traumatized woman in Katell Quillévéré’s post-war melodrama Along Came Love; Melvil Poupaud as a toxic boyfriend in Valérie Donzelli’s relationship thriller Just the Two of Us; and German actor Franz Rogowski as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion who meets a rebel in the Niger Delta in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s feature debut Disco Boy.

Founded in 1995, the Lumières Awards, honoring the best in French cinema of the previous year, are voted on by members of the international press working in France.

The winners of the 29th Lumières will be announced in Paris on Jan. 22, 2024.

Below is the full list of nominees for the 29th Lumières Awards.

Best Film

Anatomy of a Fall, dir. Justine Triet

Last Summer, dir. Catherine Breillat

Son of Ramses, dir. Clément Cogitore

The Goldman Case, dir. Cédric Kahn

The Animal Kingdom dir. Thomas Cailley

Best Director

Catherine Breillat for Last Summer

Thomas Cailley for The Animal Kingdom

Clément Cogitore for Son of Ramses

Cédric Kahn for The Goldman Case

Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Screenplay

Thomas Cailley, Pauline Munier for The Animal Kingdom

Quentin Dupieux for Yannick

Cédric Kahn, Nathalie Hertzberg for The Goldman Case

Iris Kaltenbäck for The Rapture

Justine Triet, Arthur Harari for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Documentary

Four Daughters, dir. Kaouther Ben Hania

Little Girl Blue, dir. Mona Achache

Our Body, dir. Claire Simon

La Rivière, dir. Dominique Marchais

On the Adamant, dir. Nicolas Philibert

Best Animated Film

No Dogs or Italians Allowed, dir. Alain Ughetto

Chicken for Linda!, dir. Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach

Mars Express, dir. Jérémie Périn

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, dir. Pierre Földes

The Siren, dir. Sepideh Farsi

Best Actress

Catherine Deneuve for Bernadette

Léa Drucker for Last Summer

Virginie Efira for All to Play For

Hafsia Herzi for The Rapture

Sandra Hüller for Anatomy of a Fall

Best Actor

Vincent Lacoste for Along Came Love

Karim Leklou for Vincent Must Die

Melvil Poupaud for Just the Two of Us

Franz Rogowski for Disco Boy

Arieh Worthalter for The Goldman Case

Best Female Newcomer

Suzanne Jouannet for La voie royale

Louise Mauroy-Panzani for Àma Gloria

Park Ji-Min for Return to Seoul

Claire Pommet for Spirit of Ecstasy

Ella Rumpf for Marguerite’s Theorem

Best Male Newcomer

Arthur Harari for The Goldman Case

Samuel Kircher for Last Summer

Milo Machado Graner for Anatomy of a Fall

Raphaël Quenard for Chien de la Casse

Abdulah Sissoko for Le Jeune Imam

Best First Film

Bernadette, dir. Léa Domenach

Chien de la Casse, dir. Jean-Baptiste Durand

Disco Boy, dir. Giacomo Abbruzzese

The Rapture, dir. Iris Kaltenbäck

Vincent Must Die, dir. Stéphan Castang

Best International Co-Production

The Blue Caftan, dir. Maryam Touzani

Dry Grasses, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Lost Country, dir. Vladimir Perišić

Hounds, dir. Kamal Lazraq

The Old Oak, dir. Ken Loach

Best Cinematography

Simon Beaufils for Anatomy of a Fall

David Cailley for The Animal Kingdom

Hélène Louvart for Disco Boy

Jonathan Ricquebourg for The Taste of Things

Sylvain Verdet for Son of Ramses

Best Film Score

Amine Bouhafa for Four Daughters

Clément Ducol for Chicken for Linda!

Andrea Laszlo de Simone for The Animal Kingdom

Chloé Thévenin for The Mountain

Vitalic for Disco Boy