“We film professionals cannot continue to business as usual and hand out awards in formal wear while our planet becomes uninhabitable. In a column published by Le Monde, around twenty figures from French cinema challenge the climate emergency and return to an episode of the 48th Cesar ceremony, Friday February 24, during which an environmental activist went on stage a few seconds, before being quickly evacuated.
The ceremony was then hosted by Ahmed Sylla and Léa Drucker, when a young woman appeared on stage, sporting a t-shirt on which one could read: “We have 761 days left” (“We have 761 days left”). The inscription referred to the latest IPCC report and the ultimatum set to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
At the time, the action of the activist from the Last Renovation collective almost went unnoticed by viewers, since Canal cut off its live broadcast. It only resumed after the evacuation of the young woman by security. But in the room, this censorship did not please everyone.
“We understand that this intervention took everyone by surprise and that there are procedures for set invasions. But if we don’t want this type of intrusion during the Caesars, let’s plan to talk about the subject. And above all, let’s act”, can we read in the forum signed by several big names in French cinema, such as Gilles Lellouche and Juliette Binoche.
The latter recall that, if the Caesar evening was an opportunity to address subjects such as the war in Ukraine, the demonstrations in Iran or even feminicides and pension reform, climate change was the conspicuous absentee. “French cinema is still incredibly timid in taking up this subject,” lamented the signatories.
The platform therefore invites the entire film industry, not only to adapt its practices to make them more sustainable, but also to approach the subject “from the place where we have credit: our works”. Because, the text recalls, to carry this cause, the cinema has an “extraordinary power”: “that of participating in upsetting the representations of the world”.