Nouvelle Vague

Source: Jean-Louis Fernandez/Netflix

‘Nouvelle Vague’

Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague leads the nominations for the 2026 edition of France’s Cesar Awards.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

There were also strong showings from Carine Tardieu’s family drama The Ties That Bind Us, Dominik Moll’s Case 137 and Stéphane Demoustier’s The Great Arch that each managed eight nominations. Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister earned seven nods and Thierry Khifla’s The Richest Woman In The World six.

Cannes-premiering films dominated the nominations. Nouvelle Vague, centred around the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film Breathless,  racked up 10 nominations, including best film, director and a best promising actor nomination for Guillaume Marbeck, who plays Godard. After a Cannes competition premiere, Nouvelle Vague was acquired by Netflix for the US. ARP Selection released the film in France in early October, garnering just 133,000 admissions.

The Cesar buzz could boost its audience appeal going forward. ARP Selection confirmed to Screen it  plans to re-release the film in local cinemas just ahead of the ceremony on February 25. “We are thrilled that the industry has recognised the film - and understood that it is a French film,” said the company’s  Michele Halberstadt. ”Each department has been recognised, which is proof that this was really a team effort.”

Fellow Cannes title Case 137 stars Lea Drucker as an investigator tasked with an incident involving a young man severely wounded during a protest in Paris that takes a personal turn. It will compete for best film alongside Nouvelle Vague, The Ties That Bind Us, The Little Sister and Jafar Panahi’s Oscar-nominated It Was Just An Accident. Linklater, Tardieu, Moll, Demoustier and Herzi are all in the running in the best director category.

Demoustier’s historical drama The Great Arch, first launched at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, stars Claes Bang as a Danish architect tasked with constructing the Great Arch of La Defense in the early 1980s. Bang was nominated in the best actor category alongside  Bastien Bouillon for Cannes opener Leave One Day, Pio Marmai for The Ties That Bind Us, Laurent Lafitte for The Richest Woman In the World and Benjamin Voisin for François Ozon’s The Stranger. Three of The Great Arch’s stars, Swann Arlaud, Xavier Dolan and Michel Faum, all managed nominations in the best supporting actor category.

 Drucker earned a best actress nomination alongside Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi for The Ties That Bind Us, Isabelle Huppert for The Richest Woman In The World, Leila Bekhti for 2025 French box office hit Once Upon My Mother, and Melanie Thierry for Mariana’s Room.

Huppert stars as a fictionalised version of French billionaire Liliane Bettencourt in The Richest Woman In the World, another Cannes premiere that has performed well at the local box office with nearly 1 million admissions since its late October release.

Date change

The nominations were unveiled by the country’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, which oversees the awards, on Wednesday (January 28).

The Academy announced earlier in the day that it had “exceptionally” changed the date of the event to Thursday, February 26, instead of the previously scheduled following day to air Les Enfoirés, an annual charity event gathering local celebrities for musical numbers and comedy.

Actress Camille Cottin will preside over the ceremony that will be hosted by actor Benjamin Laverhne. Jim Carrey will receive an honorary Cesar award.

Round two of voting opens on Wednesday, February 4 and will run until Tuesday, February 24, ahead of the 51st edition ceremony of the awards that will be held once again at Paris’ L’Olympia theatre.

Last year, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez was named best French film of the year and swept the awards with seven prizes from 12 nominations.

2026 Cesar Awards nominations

Best actress

  • Leïla Bekhti, Once Upon My Mother
  • Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, The Ties That Bind Us
  • Léa Drucker, Dossier 137
  • Isabelle Huppert, The Richest Woman In The World
  • Mélanie Thierry, Mariana’s Room

Best actor

  • Claes Bang, The Great Arch
  • Bastien Bouillon, Leave One Day
  • Laurent Lafitte, The Richest Woman In The World
  • Pio Marmaï, The Ties That Bind Us
  • Benjamin Voisin, The Stranger

Best supporting actress

  • Jeanne Balibar, Nino
  • Dominique Blanc, Leave One Day
  • Marina Foïs, The Richest Woman In The World
  • Ji-Min Park, The Little Sister
  • Vimala Pons, The Ties That Bind Us

Best supporting actor

  • Swann Arlaud, The Great Arch
  • Xavier Dolan, The Great Arch
  • Michel Fau, The Great Arch
  • Pierre Lottin, The Stranger
  • Raphaël Personnaz, The Richest Woman In The World

Best new actress

  • Manon Clavel, Kika
  • Suzanne Lindon, Colours Of Time
  • Nadia Melliti, The Little Sister
  • Camille Rutherford,Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
  • Anja Verderosa, L’Epreuve du Feu

Best new actor

  • Idir Azougli, Méteors
  • Sayyid El Alami, Block Pass
  • Félix Lefebvre, L’Epreuve du feu
  • Guillaume Marbeck, Nouvelle Vague
  • Théodore Pellerin, Nino

Best director

  • Carine Tardieu, The Ties That Bind Us
  • Dominik Moll, Dossier 137
  • Stéphane Demoustier, The Great Arch
  • Richard Linklater, Nouvelle Vague
  • Hafsia Herzi, The Little Sister

Best film

  • The Ties That Bind Us
  • Dossier 137
  • Nouvelle Vague
  • The Little Sister
  • It Was Just An Accident

Best international film

  • The Secret Agent
  • Black Dog
  • Sirat
  • One Battle After Another
  • Sentimental Value

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