Kristin Scott Thomas to serve as honorary president of Cesar Awards

Actress Kristin Scott Thomas has been appointed the president of the 2019 Cesar Awards in France.
As part of the honorary role, The English Patient star will help to officially open the ceremony, which will be held at the Salle Pleyel venue in Paris on 4 February (19).
“She is an essential figure of cinema,” Academy president Alain Terzian said in a statement. “She has a precision in acting, an excellence in each of her roles, coupled with an irresistible British charm.”
Scott Thomas, a three-time nominee at the Cesar Awards, will serve as the event’s first president in two years, following the outcry which was sparked by controversial filmmaker Roman Polanski’s appointment in 2017.
The director, who remains a wanted man in the U.S. after skipping the country ahead of sentencing following charges he had sex with a 13 year old at a Hollywood party in 1977, stepped down from the Cesar Awards leadership after a week of protests from women’s rights activists, leaving the position vacant.
Academy officials decided not to find a replacement, and did not fill the role last year (18).
The nominees for France’s most coveted film awards are set to be unveiled on Wednesday (23Jan19), a day after the Oscar nominations are announced.