Audiard’s Un prophète Sweeps the Césars

Director Jacques Audiard’s film Un prophète swept the 2010 French motion picture awards, winning nine Césars at the ceremony held Saturday night, including the top honors for Best Film and Best Director. Awards also went to Un prophète ‘s young star, Tahar Rahim, for both Best Actor and Most Promising Newcomer; veteran Niels Arestrup for Best Supporting Actor; and to the film’s quartet of screenwriters for Best Original Screenplay. Césars for Best Photography, Best Editing and Best Set Decoration rounded out the score.

The story of an illiterate, incarcerated young delinquent who rises to power in the Corsican gang that dominates the prison populace, Un prophète has also been nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film.

It’s not the first César sweep for director Audiard, whose De Battre Mon Coeur S’est Arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) took eight awards in 2006. Read our interview with Audiard.

Isabelle Adjani won her fourth Best Actress award, this time for the small film La Journée de la Jupe, and other Césars went to Emmanuelle Devos for A l’Origine; Catherine Leterrier, Best Costumes for Coco Before Chanel; Clint Eastwood, Best Foreign Film for Gran Torino, and Harrison Ford, who won an honorary César for lifetime achievement.