Honor awarded in the French film industry
The
Cesar Award for Best Actress
(French:
Cesar de la meilleure actrice
) is one of the
Cesar Awards
, presented annually by the
Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema
to recognize the outstanding performance in a leading role of an actress who has worked within the
French film industry
during the year preceding the ceremony. Nominees and winner are selected via a run-off voting by all the members of the Academie.
History
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Superlatives
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As of 2019, 82 actresses have been nominated in the category, with a total of 34 different winners. The average age at first nomination is 36 and the average age of winners at first win is 39.
With five wins (1982, 1984, 1989, 1995, 2010),
Isabelle Adjani
has the most Best Actress Cesars. Six actresses have won two Best Actress Cesars:
Romy Schneider
(1976, 1979),
Sabine Azema
(1985, 1987),
Catherine Deneuve
(1981, 1993),
Nathalie Baye
(1983, 2006),
Yolande Moreau
(2005, 2009) and
Isabelle Huppert
(1996, 2017).
Adjani also holds the records for most Cesar Awards in an acting category and for most Cesars in a single artistic category. She is followed with 4 Cesars by
Dominique Blanc
(1 Best Actress Cesar and 3 Best Supporting Actress Cesars) and
Nathalie Baye
(2 Best Actress Cesars and 2 Best Supporting Actress Cesars).
Isabelle Huppert
holds the record of most nominations with 14. Including Best Supporting Actress, Huppert has been nominated a total of 16 times, which makes her the overall most-nominated female performer.
Virginie Efira
hold the record of most consecutive nominations with 4 (2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024).
Cecile de France
is the only actress to have been nominated for two different roles the same year, in 2007 for
Avenue Montaigne
and for
When I Was a Singer
. The Academie has since modified the nomination rules to ensure that no one could receive more than one individual nomination by category.
Eight women have won both the Cesar Award for Best Actress and the
Cesar Award for Best Supporting Actress
:
- Nathalie Baye
(Best Supporting Actress in 1981 and 1982, Best Actress in 1983 and 2006)
- Annie Girardot
(Best Actress in 1977, Best Supporting Actress in 1996 and 2002),
- Dominique Blanc
(Best Supporting Actress in 1991, 1993 and 1999, Best Actress in 2001),
- Karin Viard
(Best Actress in 2000, Best Supporting Actress in 2003 and 2019),
- Marion Cotillard
(Best Supporting Actress in 2005, Best Actress in 2008),
- Emmanuelle Devos
(Best Actress in 2002, Best Supporting Actress in 2010),
- Adele Haenel
(Best Supporting Actress in 2014, Best Actress in 2015),
- Catherine Frot
(Best Supporting Actress in 1997, Best Actress in 2016).
- Fanny Ardant
(Best Actress in 1997, Best Supporting Actress in 2020)
Nathalie Baye
is the only actress with multiple wins in both categories. She is also the only performer to have won an acting Cesar in three consecutive years, in 1981, 1982 and 1983.
Three films have received both accolades:
One Deadly Summer
in 1984 (Best Actress to
Isabelle Adjani
, Best Supporting Actress to
Suzanne Flon
),
Indochine
in 1993 (Best Actress to
Catherine Deneuve
, Best Supporting Actress to
Dominique Blanc
) and
Queen Margot
in 1995 (Best Actress to
Isabelle Adjani
, Best Supporting Actress to
Virna Lisi
).
Five women have won the Cesar Award for Best Actress after previously winning the
Cesar Award for Most Promising Actress
:
Only one film has received both accolades:
The Dreamlife of Angels
in 1999 (Best Actress to
Elodie Bouchez
, Most Promising Actress to
Natacha Regnier
).
Thirteen women have received nominations in the three competitive acting categories: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Actress. They are
Emmanuelle Beart
,
Charlotte Gainsbourg
,
Dominique Blanc
,
Anne Brochet
,
Karin Viard
,
Sandrine Kiberlain
,
Emmanuelle Devos
,
Cecile de France
,
Marion Cotillard
,
Sylvie Testud
,
Emilie Dequenne
,
Sara Forestier
and
Adele Haenel
. So far, no actress has achieved to win the three awards.
To date, the longest-living winner is
Emmanuelle Riva
, who died at 89, and the most short-lived is
Romy Schneider
, who died at 43. The oldest alive winner is
Catherine Deneuve
, aged 77, and the earliest alive winner is
Miou-Miou
(
Memoirs of a French Whore
, 1980).
Posthumous nominations
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There have been only two posthumous nominations for any acting Cesar and both occurred in the Best Actress category.
Romy Schneider
was nominated in 1983 for
The Passerby
, seven months after her death possibly by suicide.
Pascale Ogier
died of a drug overdose at 25, three months before receiving a nomination for
Full Moon in Paris
in 1985.
Romy Schneider
is the only actress to have been presented a posthumous
Honorary Cesar
, in 2008. Actor
Alain Delon
presented the Cesar, as the date also corresponded to the forty years of the iconic film
La Piscine
in which they starred together. During the standing ovation, he turned towards a giant portrait of the actress and declared in German that she was the love of his life.
International presence
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As the
Cesar Awards
are centered on the
French Cinema
, the majority of recipients are
French
and performed in
French language
. The non-French winners of the Best Actress Cesar include Belgian actress
Yolande Moreau
(2005, 2009) and German actress
Sandra Huller
(2024).
Romy Schneider
was born German,
Virginie Efira
was born Belgian and
Berenice Bejo
was born Argentine, but all had become French naturalized citizens by the time of their wins.
International actresses who have received nominations are:
- Algeria
:
Soria Zeroual
,
- Argentina
:
Berenice Bejo
, (she holds dual Argentine-French citizenship),
- Belgium
:
Cecile de France
,
Marie Gillain
,
Yolande Moreau
,
Emilie Dequenne
,
Virginie Efira
(she holds dual Belgian-French citizenship),
- Denmark
:
Sidse Babett Knudsen
,
- Germany
:
Nastassja Kinski
,
Barbara Sukowa
,
Sandra Huller
,
- Hong Kong
:
Maggie Cheung
,
- Luxembourg
:
Vicky Krieps
,
- Morocco
:
Loubna Abidar
,
- Switzerland
:
Irene Jacob
,
- United Kingdom
:
Jane Birkin
,
Charlotte Rampling
,
Tilda Swinton
,
Kristin Scott Thomas
(she holds dual British-French citizenship),
- United States
:
Julia Migenes
.
The Best Actress Cesar has been awarded twice for a foreign-language performance: to
Isabelle Adjani
for her
English-language
performance in
Possession
(1982) and to
Sylvie Testud
for her
Japanese-language
performance in
Fear and Trembing
(2004). In addition,
Berenice Bejo
is the only performer in the history of the Cesar to receive an award for a silent role, in
The Artist
(2012).
Winners and nominees
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Following the Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema (AATC)'s practice, the films below are listed by year of ceremony, which corresponds to the year following the film's year of release. For example, the Cesar for Best Actress of 2010 was awarded on February 27, 2010 for a performance in a film released between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009.
Actresses are selected via a two-round vote: first round to choose the nominees, second round to designate the winner. All the members of the Academie, without regard to their branch, are eligible to vote on both rounds. The number of nominees, initially set to four, was expanded to five in 1984 and then to seven in 2012.
Winners are listed first in
bold
, followed by the other nominees in alphabetic order.
1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010s
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2020s
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Multiple wins and nominations
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The following individuals received two or more Best Actress awards:
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The following individuals received three or more Best Actress nominations:
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See also
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References
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External links
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Merit awards
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Special awards
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- Honorary Award
- Prix Daniel Toscan du Plantier
- Trophee Cesar & Techniques
- Medaille d'Or
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Retired awards
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Award ceremonies
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