PARIS - "[with a view to] ... honor those involved in making cinema in 2019, to regain calm and to make the cinema festival [otherwise known as the ceremony “Les Césars”] a celebration, the board of directors of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema has made the decision to resign unanimously [...]”

So read part of the press release issued by the executive board of the César Awards last Thursday

At the last Cannes Festival this past May Abderrahmane Sissako's slow burn-tale about a town's descent into Islamist hell was the first movie I saw. By the end of fest (that is, about fifty movies later), "Timbuktu" waded around my brain like a very sweet but anxiety-inducing dream I once had. It's now nearly a year later now and director Sissako has triumphed as France's best filmmaker, getting some well-deserved recognition