Actors walk out after Roman Polanski wins best director at France's Oscars

The director, who has a history of accusations of sexual assault, won for the film 'J'accuse'

Roman Polanski, the film director who fled the United States in 1978 while awaiting sentencing for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, was a big winner Friday night at the Césars, France’s equivalent of the Academy Awards, leading several actors to walk out of the ceremony in outrage.

He was named best director for “J’accuse” (The English title: “An Officer and a Spy”) about Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish military officer wrongly convicted of treason in what remains France’s most notorious miscarriage of justice.

“Very few” people applauded Mr. Polanski’s best director award, said Le Monde, the French newspaper.

Adèle Haenel, one of France’s most prominent young actresses who said she had suffered from sexual abuse in the country’s film industry, was one of those who left the room at the César ceremony, waving an arm in disgust and appearing to say, “Shame.”

Several others followed Ms. Haenel when she walked out, including Céline Sciamma, the director of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” which starred Ms. Haenel. The 31-year-old actress also shouted, “Well done, pedophilia” as she left the hall, according to videos shared on social media.

Ms. Haenel previously complained this month in an interview with The New York Times about his nominations.

“Distinguishing Polanski is spitting in the face of all victims,” she said. “It means raping women isn’t that bad.”

Mr. Polanski’s film won two other awards, having led the nominations with 12, the most of any movie. Mr. Polanski was given the award for best adapted screenplay along with Robert Harris, the British novelist. The movie also won for best costume design. It was nominated for the best film award, but that honor went to “Les Misérables,” a crime drama that shows the harsh reality of life in Paris’s immigrant-heavy suburbs.

But he was not there to collect any of the prizes. He announced on Thursday that he would not attend the ceremony because he feared a “public lynching” from protesters outside, angered at his links to child sexual abuse.

“We know how this evening will unfold already,” Mr. Polanksi said in a statement. “What place can there be in such deplorable conditions for a film about the defense of truth, the fight for justice, blind hate and anti-Semitism?”

Mr. Polanski pulled out of the 2017 awards for the same reason.

Mr. Polanski has been a fugitive from the United States since 1978, when he fled before sentencing in a statutory rape case. He has faced more accusations of sexual assault since then.

On Friday, the French police fired tear gas outside the Paris concert hall hosting the César Film Awards in a clash with people protesting the director, according to local news reports. Protesters also pulled down a safety barrier outside the venue, but the police pushed them back, so they did not make it onto the red carpet.

Other demonstrators waved placards reading, “Shame on an industry that protects rapists.”

The United States considers Mr. Polanski a fugitive of justice but has been unable to secure his extradition. He has also faced other accusations of sexual assault. In November, Valentine Monnier, a photographer, accused Mr. Polanski of raping her in 1975, when she was 18, in a ski chalet in Switzerland. He has denied the accusations.

Reviewers praised “J’accuse” at the Venice Film Festival last year. “The longer you look at it, the more impressive it grows,” Xan Brooks wrote in The Guardian. It won similar acclaim in France after its release in November, and the film topped the country’s box office. But it was also met with protests, and some in France’s film industry distanced themselves from Mr. Polanski.

After the César nominations were announced in January, a host of French feminist organizations said they would protest the ceremony. “If rape is an art, give Polanski all the Césars,” they said in an open letter published in a leading newspaper.

Mr. Polanski, though absent, loomed large throughout the evening. Florence Foresti, the actress and comedian who hosted the event, started the event by welcoming “predators” in the audience.

“There are 12 moments when we’re going to have an issue,” she said in a reference to Mr. Polanski’s 12 nominations.

Ms. Foresti, who was not onstage when he was named best director, did not return for the end of the ceremony. She wrote on Instagram that she was “disgusted.”

Mr. Polanski’s decision to withdraw from this year’s award ceremony didn’t ease the controversy. On Friday morning, Franck Riester, France’s culture minister, said in a television interview that if Mr. Polanski won best director at the Césars, it would be “a bad symbol given we must all be aware of the need to fight against sexual violence and sexism.”

But Mr. Riester said he would be happy for “J’accuse” to win best film. There was “no need to penalize the team” for Mr. Polanski’s behavior, he said.

The film’s first award of the night was for best costume designer. But the winner, Pascaline Chavanne, was not present to collect her trophy. The entire cast and production team had shunned the event over criticism aimed at their director.

Elian Peltier contributed reporting from Adeje, Spain