Despite reports that the helmer raped multiple actresses, his movie 'An Officer and a Spy' receives nominations for top categories including best film and best director at the France version of the Golden Globes.
- December 4, 2019
AceShowbiz - Roman Polanski's "An Officer and a Spy" landed five Lumiere Awards nominations on Tuesday, December 3, despite calls to blacklist the filmmaker after a new rape allegation against him emerged.
The film, a retelling of the infamous Dreyfus Affair, scored five nods, including for best film, best director, best screenplay, best cinematography, and a best actor nod for Jean Dujardin, even though French women's groups have demanded a boycott of the movie.
Activists and film industry figures have also demanded organisers rescind his European Film Award nominations after actress Valentine Monnier accused him of rape in the newspaper Le Parisien last month.
Polanski was arrested in 1977 and charged with raping 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. He pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of unlawful sex with a minor and served 42 days behind bars, but fled the U.S. after learning the judge was planning to renege on the plea deal and hand him a much longer sentence.
He has subsequently been accused of sexual assault or rape by several other women, including British actress Charlotte Lewis, who claims he raped her in 1983 when she was 16, allegations he denies, as he does Monnier's.
A premiere of the film in Paris last month sparked protests, with activists displaying banners with the names of his alleged victims.
Other nominees at the Lumieres, France's version of the Golden Globes, include the country's Oscar submission, "Les Miserables", which leads the way with seven nods, and Eva Green, who is up for best actress for her performance in Alice Winocour's astronaut drama "Proxima".
The awards will be held on January 27 at the Olympia Hall in Paris.
