Icon: enlarge
Roman Polanski with César trophy (archive picture from 2014)
Photo: Martin Bureau / AFP
The French film academy César has excluded the filmmaker Roman Polanski, 87, from its institution.
With this, the academy reacted to a month-long dispute about the French-Polish filmmaker.
At the same time, other "membres de droit" (such as ex officio members) have to leave the academy.
A total of 18 people were excluded from the academy, including the producers and directors Costa-Gavras ("Der Stellvertreter"), Régis Wargnier ("Indochine") and Thomas Langmann ("The Artist").
Polanski and the other filmmakers had received honorary status because of their awards.
Because of rape allegations against Polanski, calls for his exclusion had become louder and louder in recent months.
After Polanski was awarded the César for best director at the end of February (in absentia), several women had left the room in protest.
The academy announced on its website that the management of the academy is now equal and democratic.
The general assembly now consists of 164 elected members: 82 men and 82 women.
The status of personalities who came to the executive committee solely because of their careers was thus abolished.
The academy is chosen by more than 4,000 filmmakers.
In February, the then top management resigned collectively shortly before the César Prizes were awarded.
One of the reasons was the multiple nominations for the film "Intrigue" by Polanski.
The academy had been criticized for a long time.
It was accused of encrusted structures and a lack of parity.
A new management duo has been in charge of the academy since the end of September: the former Arte chairman Véronique Cayla and her deputy, the director Éric Toledano.
Icon: The mirror
feb / dpa