PARIS - "Fatima", a movie about an immigrant Moroccan woman struggling to raise her two teenagers in France, scooped the best picture prize at the Cesar film awards on Friday.
French director Philippe Faucon speaks after winning the Best Writing - Adaptation award for "Fatima" during the 41st edition of the Cesar Ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris on February 26, 2016
The Cesars, the hottest annual event celebrating the best of French film, boasted a broad display of diversity in the country's cinema industry in a year when the Oscars -- only two days away -- has been criticised as "too white".
"Fatima" also won a Cesar for most promising actress, 26-year-old Zita Hanrot, while the Oscar-nominated "Mustang" swept up several awards including for best first film.
"Mustang", by Franco-Turkish director Deniz Gamze Erguven, tells the story of five sisters in rural Turkey forced into arranged marriages.
The best actress award went to Catherine Frot, 59, for her role in "Marguerite" which tells the tale of a diva who wants to be an opera singer and seems oblivious to the fact that she has a dreadful voice.
Frot is a 10-time Cesar nominee and won the best supporting actress award in 1996 for "Family Resemblances".
The best actor prize went to Vincent Lindon for his role in "Le Loi Du Marche" (The Measure Of A Man) in which he plays an unemployed factory worker. He won the same honour for the movie during the 2015 Cannes film festival.
Oscar-winning "Birdman" by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu also scooped a Cesar -- the top film prize in France -- for best foreign film on Friday.
A showbiz satire about the dark side of fame, starring Michael Keaton, "Birdman" won four Academy Awards last year including the coveted best picture prize.
Michael Douglas was awarded a lifetime achievement Cesar, delivering his entire acceptance speech in French.