Carol Scotta and Barbara Letelier, the French producers of Dominique Moll’s thriller “12 Nights,” won the Tuscan du Pantyre award at a ceremony in Paris hosted by the Académie César.
The couple, who produced the film Haut et Court (“The Class”), was voted on by 1,641 people, including previously nominated artists and crew members at the César Awards, along with members of the board of directors of the César Academy.
On stage with Letellier, Scotta praised Moll’s vision for “The Night of the 12th” and said the film was “propelled by the strength of a team effort. That’s what we see with this group of cops working tirelessly to solve the case,” she continued.
Twelfth Night is competing for 10 César Awards. The spot-on procedural, which also opened as part of its Cannes premiere segment, stars Bastien Bouillon and Polly Laniers as two cops trying to solve a gruesome murder. On top of being a huge hit, the film also turned out to be one of the highest-grossing French films of 2022 with nearly 500,000 tickets sold.
Scotta, who co-founded Haut et Court with Caroline Bingo, said the company was “an adventure that began nearly 30 years ago.” “Now we’re about 30 people working on Al Shuhada Street, and we’re glad we’ve been through all these years,” she said.
In addition to film production, Haut et Court is also an active distributor of arthouse films and a major supplier of premium series. The company’s best known TV credits include “The Returned,” “The Last Panther,” and “Possessions.” Banner is currently filming “Constellation” for Apple TV+. Scota and Letelier beat other strong producers in the race, notably Anne-Dominique Toussaint (“The Innocents”) and Hugo Selignac (“November”, “Stronghold”).
The ceremony also marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Daniel Toscan du Plantier, brilliant producer and former president of the Académie César. The tribute, attended by his widow Melita and daughter Ariane, included the screening of a short documentary film depicting the esteemed figure of French industry through archive footage and clips narrated by Jerome Clement.
The ceremony was attended by French Minister of Culture Rima Abdel Malek, Cesar Awards President Veronique Kayla and Vice President Patrick Sobelman, and a group of French producers including Alain Attal, Marc Messonnier, Isabelle Madeleine, Edouard Weil and Toufic Ayadi. and Christophe Barral.
