INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The entire board of the Cesar Awards, France's Oscars equivalent, has resigned en masse after weeks of controversy over Roman Polanski's new
film which received the most nominations.The resignations come just two weeks before the awards, which will feature 12 nominations for An
Officer And A Spy, Polanski's film about a Jewish French officer accused of spying for Germany in the 1890s."To honour those who made films
in 2019, to regain serenity and make the cinema festival a celebration, the board of directors of the (film academy) made a unanimous
decision to resign," the French film academy said in a statement.Image:A poster for J'accuse displayed on a cinema in ParisPolanski launched
his new film in France last year, just days after a French actress accused him of having raped her in 1975, when she was 18, during a ski
holiday in Gstaad, Switzerland.Polanski, now 86, has denied the accusation.The French-Polish director fled the United States after pleading
guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sex with a13-year-old girl in Los Angeles.An Officer And A Spy, J'Accuse in French, is based on Robert
Harris's novel of the same name and stars a French cast which includes Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin and Emmanuelle Seigner, who is married to
Polanski.:: Listen to Backstage on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SpreakerFeminist groups have called for a boycott of the film
and the academy's "opaqueness" has been criticised in an open letter signed by directors and actors including Dujardin's The Artist co-star
Berenice Bejo and X-Men's Omar Sy.Accusations against Polanski predate the sexual harassment scandal that embroiled Hollywood film producer
Harvey Weinstein in 2017.Image:Polanski (L) with the producer and cast of his filmBut Polanski's history came under renewed scrutiny as the
#MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment grew in response to the allegations against Weinstein, who is on trial for rape and
sexual assault in New York.Polanski was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2018.
