Nominations for the 41st Annual César Awards -France's national film awards- were announced this morning in Paris. This year’s selection includes renowned Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán’s (pictured left) The Pearl Button / El botón de nácar for Best Documentary.
The Pearl Button premiered last year in the main competition of the 65th Berlinale, where it won the Silver Bear for Best Script. After contemplating the heavens in Nostalgia for the Light, Guzmán turns his masterful eye to the ocean to uncover the history of the indigenous people of Patagonia.
In pre-colonial times, the nomadic Kaweskar (or “water people”) lived and thrived in harmony with the sea; today they have all but vanished. Interviewing the last of the Kaweskar, Guzmán chronicles the terrible devastation wrought by this almost complete genocide, discovering an unsettling parallel to the thousands who were disappeared by more recent regimes.
Nominated in the Best Foreign Film category is Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s acclaimed Birdman. The black comedy won Best Picture at the last year’s Academy Awards ceremony. Birdman tells the story of an actor (Michael Keaton)—famous for portraying an iconic superhero—as he struggles to mount a Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career and himself.
The 41st Annual César Awards will take place February 26, 2016 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, France.
