Cesar Awards: 'French Oscars' board quits en-masse amid backlash over Polanski nominations
Film was launched in France last year just days after a French actor accused Polanski of raping her in 1975
The leaders of the Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars, have resigned en-masse after controversy surrounding director Roman Polanski.
Polanski’s film An Officer and a Spy, about Jewish French officer Alfred Dreyfus, leads with 12 nominations ahead of the ceremony.
The film was launched in France last year just days after a French actor accused Polanski of raping her in 1975 during a ski holiday in Gstaad, Switzerland, when she was 18-years-old.
Polanski, 86, has denied the accusation.
The French-Polish director fled the US after pleading guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles.
The decision to recognise An Officer and a Spy caused a backlash among feminist groups and Polanski's critics, along with calls to boycott the film.
“To honour those who made films in 2019, to regain serenity and make the cinema festival a celebration, the board of directors of the [film academy] made a unanimous decision to resign,” the French film academy said in a statement.
“This collective decision will allow complete renewal of the board.”
A general meeting is set to be held after this month’s ceremony to elect a new board, which will look at modernising the institution.
French culture minister Franck Riester said the César Academy must operate democratically, in the spirit of “openness, transparency, parity and diversity”.
Polanski was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2018.
Additional reporting by Reuters