Nouvelle Vague sweeps over the 2026 Césars: all the nominations
Richard Linklater’s film tops the list of quotes. But the fight will be close with L’Attachement, File 137, L’Inconnu de la Grande Arche, L’Étranger and even A Simple Accident.
Who will succeed Emilia Pérez ? It’s difficult to choose a favorite this year, as the competition promises to be so tight. This is what is reflected in the nominations for the 2026 César Awards, revealed this Wednesday morning by the academy.
New waveby the American Richard Linklater, dominates with 10 citations for his French account of the eventful backstage ofOut of breath by Jean-Luc Godard. Behind, we find three obvious outsiders: Attachment, File 137 And The Unknown of the Grande Arche follow with eight nominations each. As for The Stranger by François Ozon, big winner of the Lumières prizes from the international press, he is satisfied with four citations but could well also be included in the prize list.
We will not forget the Cannes Palme d’Or, A Simple Accident which seems to suffer from its somewhat hybrid status – French production but obviously Iranian work shot in Persian – and ultimately only garners two nominations for Best Film (not Best Foreign Film) and Best Screenplay.
Chaired by Camille Cottin and presented by Benjamin Lavernhe, the 51st Césars ceremony will be broadcast Thursday February 26, unencrypted on Canal+. Jim Carrey will receive, on this occasion, an Honorary César.
Find all the 2026 César nominations below:
Cesar for best film
Attachmentproduced by Fabrice Goldstein and Antoine Rein, directed by Carine Tardieu
File 137produced by Caroline Benjo, Barbara Letellier, Carole Scotta, directed by Dominik Moll
New waveproduced by Michèle Pétin and Laurent Pétin, directed by Richard Linklater
The Little Lastproduced by Julie Billy and Naomi Denamur, directed by Hafsia Herzi
A simple accidentproduced by Philippe Martin, directed by Jafar Panahi
César for Best Director
Carine Tardieu for Attachment
Dominik Moll for File 137
Stéphane Demoustier for The Unknown of the Grande Arche
Richard Linklater for New wave
Hafsia Herzi for The Little Last
Cesar for best actor
Claes Bang in The Unknown of the Grande Arche
Bastien Bouillon in Leave one day
Laurent Lafitte in The richest woman in the world
Pio Marmaï in Attachment
Benjamin Voisin in The Stranger
César for best actress
Leila Bekhti in My mother, God and Sylvie Vartan
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in Attachment
Léa Drucker in File 137
Isabelle Huppert in The richest woman in the world
Mélanie Thierry in Mariana’s Room
César for Best Supporting Actor
Swann Arlaud in The Unknown of the Grande Arche
Xavier Dolan in The Unknown of the Grande Arche
Michel Fau in The Unknown of the Grande Arche
Pierre Lottin in The Stranger
Raphaël Personnaz in The richest woman in the world
César for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Jeanne Balibar in Nino
Dominique Blanc in Leave one day
Marina Foïs in The richest woman in the world
Ji-Min Park in The Little Last
Vimala Pons in Attachment
Caesar of male revelation
Idir Azougli in Meteors
Sayyid El Alami in The Pampas
Félix Lefebvre in Trial by Fire
William Marbeck in New wave
Théodore Pellerin in Nino
César of female revelation
Manon Clavel in Kika
Suzanne Lindon in The Coming of the Future
Nadia Melliti in The Little Last
Camille Rutherford in Jane Austen ruined my life
Anja Verderosa in Trial by Fire
César for best original screenplay
Dominik Moll and Gilles Marchand for File 137
Pauline Loquès for Nino
Holly Gent and Vince Palmo for New wave
Franck Dubosc and Sarah Kaminsky for A bear in the Jura
Jafar Panahi for A simple accident
César for best adapted screenplay
Carine Tardieu, Raphaële Moussafir and Agnès Feuvre for Attachment
Stéphane Demoustier for The Unknown of the Grande Arche
Hafsia Herzi for The Little Last
César for best photography
Elin Kirschfink for Attachment
Patrick Ghiringhelli for File 137
Marine Atlan for The Engulfed
Manu Dacosse for The Stranger
David Chambille for New wave
César for best editing
Stan Collet for 13 days, 13 nights
Christel Dewynter for Attachment
Laurent Rouan for File 137
Catherine Schwartz for New wave
Géraldine Mangenot for The Little Last
César for best decorations
Jean-Philippe Moreaux for Dog 51
Catherine Cosme for The Unknown of the Grande Arche
Riton Dupire-Clément for My mother, God and Sylvie Vartan
Katia Wyszkop for New wave
Marie Cheminial for The Coming of the Future
César for best visual effects
Cédric Fayolle for Dog 51
Rodolphe Chabrier, Benoît de Longlée for The Shrinking Man
Lise Fischer for The Unknown of the Grande Arche
Alain Carsoux for New wave
César for best original music
Arnaud Toulon for Arco
Olivier Marguerit for File 137
Fatima Al Qadiri for The Stranger
Alex Beaupain for The richest woman in the world
Amine Bouhafa for The Little Last
César for best sound
Nicolas Becker, Andrea Ferrera, Damien Lazzerini for Arco
Romain Cadilhac, Marc Nambard, Olivier Touche, Olivier Goinard for The Song of the Forests
François Maurel, Rym Debbarh-Mounir, Nathalie Vidal for File 137
Jean Minondo, Serge Rouquairol, Christophe Vingtrinier for New wave
Rémi Chanac, Jeanne Delplanq, Fanny Martin, Niels Barletta for Leave one day
César for best costumes
Céline Guignard for The Condition
Corinne Bruand for Dracula
Jürgen Doering for The richest woman in the world
Pascaline Chavanne for New wave
Pierre-Yves Gayraud for The Coming of the Future
César for best animated film
Amélie and the metaphysics of tubesdirected by Mailys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han
Arcodirected by Ugo Bienvenu
Castle Life, my childhood in Versaillesdirected by Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat and Nathaniel H’Limi
César for best first film
Arcodirected by Ugo Bienvenu
Trial by Firedirected by Aurélien Peyre
Ninodirected by Pauline Loquès
The Pampasdirected by Antoine Chevrollier
Leave one daydirected by Amélie Bonnin
César for best documentary film
On a bicycle!directed by Mathias Mlekuz
The Song of the Forestsdirected by Vincent Munier
The Fifth Plan of La Jetéedirected by Dominique Cabrera
Nobody understands anythingdirected by Yannick Kergoat
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walkdirected by Sepideh Farsi
César for best foreign film
The Secret Agentdirected by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Black Dogdirected by Guan Hu
Siratdirected by Oliver Laxe
One battle after anotherdirected by Paul Thomas Anderson
Sentimental valuedirected by Joachim Trier
César for best animated short film
The Beautiful Scarsdirected by Jouzeau Raphaël
God is shydirected by Jocelyn Charles
Water Girldirected by Sandra Desmazières
César for best documentary short film
In the ladies’ bathdirected by Margaux Fournier
Car Washdirected by Laïs Decaster
Neither God nor fatherdirected by Paul Kermarec
César for best short fiction film
Big Boys Don’t Crydirected by Arnaud Delmarle
Two people exchanging salivadirected by Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata
Death of an actordirected by Ambroise Rateau
Wonderwalldirected by Róisín Burns
