PARIS — French-American filmmaker and actress Tonie Marshall, the only female director to ever win a Cesar award — France's equivalent of the Oscars — has died. She was 68.
France's Equalities Ministry Thursday confirmed the death “with sadness.”
Marshall won the top directing prize at the Cesars in 2000 for her movie “Venus Beauty Institute,” a romantic comedy starring Nathalie Baye and Audrey Tautou that recounts the quest for
Despite the accolade, her global renown in cinema remained limited.
Marshall's father was American actor William Marshall and her mother was French actress Micheline Presle. She was the half-sister of actor Mike Marshall and the aunt of model and actress Sarah Marshall.
Marshall dealt with sexism head-on in work subsequent to her Cesar-winning film, including in 2017's “Number One” that
Before trying her hand behind the camera, she was an actress and had a small role in “A Slightly Pregnant Man” by iconic French director Jacques Demy, in which she played alongside Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. Demy was said to be a strong influence on her later directorial work.
The death of the only woman director the Cesar board has ever
A month ago, the entire, male-dominated Cesar leadership stepped down in a spat partly over Roman Polanski, who won this year's Cesar for best director. Women’s rights activists called for a boycott of the ceremony in Paris, after a Frenchwoman came forward last year to accuse Polanski of raping her in 1975 in his Swiss chalet when she was 18 — charges Polanski denied.
In 1977, the Polish-born director pleaded guilty in the U.S. to having sex with a 13-year-old, and fled to Europe the following year.
Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press
