The Césars, France’s equal to the Oscars, have banned anybody indicted on, or convicted of, a felony sexual offense, from attending this 12 months’s awards ceremony. Actors, administrators, producers or different artists who’ve been charged or convicted of sexual crimes will can nonetheless be nominated for a César, and might nonetheless win the award. However they won’t be allowed to attend the gala ceremony and, in the event that they win, “nobody will likely be allowed to talk on their behalf.”

The César Academy has been sharply criticized of late for its laissez faire strategy to coping with members accused of sexual crimes. Issues got here to a head lately when the actor Sofiane Bennacer, who seems in Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s Cannes title Ceaselessly Younger, was placed on the César shortlist in one of the best newcomer class. The César Academy finally dropped him from the listing after it emerged that he had been indicted on a number of expenses of rape and violence.

The French movie trade has been notoriously sluggish to handle calls for from the #MeToo motion to punish these accused of sexual violence and to make structural modifications to guard victims. Gerard Depardieu’s indictment on rape expenses has not stopped the French star from getting work. Regardless of dealing with trial on sexual assault expenses, Dominique Boutonnat, the president of the Nationwide Movie Board (CNC), was reelected to a second time period on the highly effective trade group final 12 months.

When Roman Polanski gained finest director for An Officer and a Spy on the 2020 Césars it prompted a number of walkouts and triggered a backlash towards the academy. Polanski didn’t attend the ceremony, saying he needed to keep away from a “public lynching.”

On Monday, the Césars issued an announcement saying out of “respect for the victims (even alleged ones)” accused and convicted perpetrators will excluded from the upcoming awards ceremony.

The transfer is step one in a broader shake-up on the Césars. The academy is discussing long-term modifications to eligibility guidelines that it will likely be put to a members vote within the first half of this 12 months.

The 2023 Césars will happen February 24.