Michaela Pavlátová My Sunny Maad and Urška Djukić and Emilie Pigeard’s Granny’s Sexual Life have won the Cesars for Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Short at the 48th Edition of the Cesar awards in Paris. France’s equivalent of the Oscars took place at Paris’s historic Olympia concert hall this Friday (Feb. 24).
My Sunny Maad tells the story of a Czech woman’s marriage to an Afghani man and her attempts to adapt to her new life in a post-Taliban Kabul. The film was adapted from a novel by war journalist Petra Procházková and received a Golden Globe nomination last year. Pavlátová was nominated for an Oscar in 1993 for her short Words Words Words. The other nominees in this category were the Annecy Prize-winning Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be and Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia. It’s interesting to note that all three nominees in this category were 2D-animated features.
Urška Djukić and Emilie Pigeard’s Granny’s Sexual Life is based on the anonymous testimonials gathered by Milena Miklavcic in the book Fire, Ass and Snakes Are Not Toys. The short also won the European Film Award and was a nominee at Annecy, Animateka, Clermont-Ferrand and AFI Festival to name a few. The other short nominees in this Cesar category were Noir-Soleil by Marie Larrive, Nicolas de Rosanbo and Celine Vanlint and Cuddle by Margot Reumont and Benoit Ayraud.
Oscar-winning director and producer David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Mank, Love, Death + Robots) took home the Honorary Cesar for his career achievements.
Some additional excitement was provided by a climate activist who stormed the stage wearing a t-shirt saying “We have 761 days left” for about 30 seconds.
