Carole Scotta and Barbara Letellier, the French producers of Dominik Moll’s thriller “The Night of the 12th,” won the Toscan du Plantier Award at a Paris ceremony hosted by the Cesar Academie.
The pair, who produced the movie at Haut et Court (“The Class”), were voted on by 1,641 people, including artists and crew members who were previously nominated at the Cesar Awards, along with the governing body members of the Cesar Academie.
On stage with Letellier, Scotta praised Moll’s vision for the “The Night of the 12th” and said the film was “driven by the power of the collective effort. “That’s what we see with this group of cops working tirelessly to solve a case,” she continued.
“The Night of the 12th” is vying for 10 Cesar awards. The brooding topical procedural, which also opened as part of Cannes’ Premiere section, stars Bastien Bouillon and Bouli Lanners as two cops trying to solve a gruesome murder. On top of being a critical hit, the film also turned out to be one of the highest grossing French-language films of 2022 with nearly 500,000 tickets sold.
Scotta, who co-founded Haut et Court with Caroline Benjo, said the company was “an adventure that started nearly 30 years ago.” “We’re now about 30 people working at Rue des Martyrs, and we’re happy to have gone through all these years,” she said.
In addition to producing films, Haut et Court is also an active distribution company of arthouse movies and a top purveyor of premium series. The company’s best known TV credits include “The Returned,” “The Last Panther” and “Possessions.” The banner is currently shooting “Constellation” for Apple TV+. Scotta and Letellier beat out other strong producers in the running, notably Anne-Dominique Toussaint (“The Innocent”) and Hugo Selignac (“November,” “The Stronghold”).
The ceremony also marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Daniel Toscan du Plantier, the illustrious producer and former president of the Cesar Academie. The tribute, which was attended by his widow Melita and daughter Ariane, included the screening of an intimate documentary short portraying the revered French industry figure through archive footage and clips narrated by Jérôme Clément.
The gala evening was attended by Rima Abdul Malak, the French culture minister, as well as Cesar Awards president Véronique Cayla and vice president Patrick Sobelman, and a flurry of French producers including Alain Attal, Marc Missonnier, Isabelle Madeleine, Edouard Weil, Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barrral.