3+3 Animation Films for the 2025 French Césars

Cesar animation nominations 2025 collage still

From Holocaust to trans people, there is something for everyone in the 3 nominees ( César Awards still keep their nominees for animation to a very limited number) for the best French short animation and feature film.

We see (again, no surprise), Oscar-nominated Gints Zilbalodis' 'Flow' -here, via its French Sacrebleu Production responsible, Ron Dyens. The Oscar-awarded (for The Artist) Michel Hazanavicius returns with the animation feature 'The Most Precious of Cargoes'. And the director of 'My LIfe as a Zucchini', Claude Barras, is nominated for his second stop-motion feature (set in Africa), the aptly named 'Savages'.

In the short animation film category, a children's film, a film about a trans person, and memories of the camps feature in the selection. Florence Miailhe competes with another painterly effort in 'Papillon/Butterfly' and a harrowing story intimately told; Loïc Espuche continues his streak of accolades with 'Beurk! / Yuck!', a story addressed to children and investigating the intricacies of the first kiss. And Cynthia Calvi presents an animated story of a trans woman, with sensitivity and an eye for observation.

Here's the full list of nominees:

Feature Animation

Flow, dir. Gints Zilbalodis (French producer: Ron Dyens)
Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species and will have to team up with them despite their differences.

La Plus Precieuse des merchandise / The Most Precious of Cargoes, dir. Michel Hazanavicius (Patrick Sobelman, Florence Gastaud, Michel Hazanavicius)
The story centers on a Holocaust-surviving Jewish girl whose father throws her from a moving train heading to Auschwitz and is ultimately found by a woodcutter and his family. 

Sauvages, dir. Claude Barras (French producers: Laurence Petit, Barbara Letellier, Carole Scotta)
In Borneo, Kéria takes in a baby orangutan found on the palm oil plantation where her father works. At the same time, her cousin Selaï comes to stay with them to escape the conflict between his nomadic family and the logging companies. The ancestral forest is under threat more than ever.

Short Animation

Beurk! / Yuck!,  Loic Espuche (Juliette Marquet, Manon Messiant prod.)

Yuck! Couples kissing on the mouth are gross. And the worst is, you can’t miss them: when people are about to kiss, their lips become all pink and shiny. Little Léo laughs at them, just like all the kids at the summer camp. But he has a secret he won’t tell his friends: his own mouth has actually begun glistening. And, in reality, Léo desperately wants to give kissing a try.

Gigi, Cynthia Calvi (Luc Camilli, prod.)


From the tormented little mermaid to the fulfilled woman she is today, Gigi tells us about her gender transition with humour and sensitivity.

Papillon / Butterfly, Florence Miailhe (Ron Dyens, Luc Camilli, prod.)


In the sea, a man swims.
As he does, memories come to the surface.
From his early childhood to his life as a man, all his memories are linked to water.
Some are happy, some glorious, some traumatic

The 50th César awards will be bestowed on 28th February 2025.

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