Triangle of Sadness and Cairo Conspiracy nominated for French Césars

Tarik Saleh and Ruben Östlund at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Photo by Getty Images

Two Swedish films – Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund and Cairo Conspiracy by Tarik Saleh – are nominated for a César Award, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, in the Best Foreign Film category.

Both films world premiered at last year’s Cannes Film festival, where Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness was awarded the Palme d’Or and Tarik Saleh picked up the award for Best Screenplay as well as the Prix François Chalais for Cairo Conspiracy (also known as Boy from Heaven).

And the awards and nominations keep coming – both films were awarded at the Swedish Guldbagge Awards gala, and yesterday it was announced that Triangle of Sadness is in the Oscars race for Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

– On Monday the 23rd, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness is awarded six national film awards and Tarik Saleh wins in the Best Screenplay category. On Tuesday the 24th Triangle of Sadness is nominated for no less than three (!) Oscars. Today on Wednesday the 25th it is announced that Ruben and Tarik are both nominated for a César. The fantastic journey that these two films began in Cannes last year just never seems to end, it only picks up speed! And this is not only a journey for these two magnificent filmmakers and their teams. It is also a voyage for Swedish cinema. The attention these directors and their films receive is so important for the Swedish film community as a whole. The inspiration they give and the spotlight they put on other fantastic directors waiting to be discovered on the international scene. We wish both Ruben and Tarik the best of luck at these award galas and keep our fingers and toes crossed! says Petter Mattsson, head of the International Department a the Swedish Film Institute.

Looking back, this is not the first time Ruben Östlund and Tarik Saleh are toe to toe at the Césars. At the 2018 gala, Östlund’s The Square and Saleh’s The Nile Hilton Incident both competed for the Best Foreign Film Award (which was won by Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless). Before that, Swedish film at the César Awards were synonymous with Ingmar Bergman, who scored nominations for The Magic Flute (1976) and Autumn Sonata (1979) and a win for Fanny and Alexander (1984).

Cairo Conspiracy – French title La Conspiration du Caire – was produced by Kristina Åberg and Fredrik Zander, Atmo Rights. Swedish distributor TriArt Film, with Memento Films handling international sales. Triangle of Sadness was produced by Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Plattform Produktion. Distributed domestically by SF Studios, international sales by Coproduction Office. Both films were made with support from the Swedish Film Institute, and co-produced with Film i Väst, among others.

The 48th edition of the César Awards will take place on February 24.