César Award for Best Actor
Honor awarded to French actors
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The César Award for Best Actor (French: César de la meilleure acteur) is one of the César Awards, presented annually by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma to recognize the outstanding performance in a leading role of an actor who has worked within the French film industry during the year preceding the ceremony. Nominees and winner are selected via a run-off voting by all the members of the Académie.
| César Award for Best Actor | |
|---|---|
 2026 recipient: Laurent Lafitte | |
| Awarded for | Best Actor in a Leading Role |
| Country | France |
| Presented by | Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma |
| First award | 1976 |
| Currently held by | Laurent Lafitte for The Richest Woman in the World (2026) |
| Website | academie-cinema |
Winners and nominees
Following the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma (AATC)'s practice, the films below are listed by year of ceremony, which corresponds to the year following the film's year of release. For example, the César for Best Actor of 2010 was awarded on February 27, 2010 for a performance in a film released between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009.
Actors are selected via a two-round vote: first round to choose the nominees, second round to designate the winner. All the members of the Académie, without regard to their branch, are eligible to vote on both rounds. The number of nominees, initially set to four, was expanded to five in 1984 and then to seven in 2012.
Winners are listed first in bold, followed by the other nominees in alphabetic order.
Winners
1970s
| Year | Winner | English title | Original title | Role/Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 (1st) |
Philippe Noiret | The Old Gun | Le Vieux Fusil | Julien Dandieu |
| Victor Lanoux | Cousin, Cousin | Cousin, cousine | Ludovic | |
| Jean-Pierre Marielle | Cookies | Les Galettes de Pont-Aven | Henri Serin | |
| Gérard Depardieu | Seven Deaths by Prescription | Sept morts sur ordonnance | Doctor Jean-Pierre Berg | |
| 1977 (2nd) |
Michel Galabru | The Judge and the Assassin | Le Juge et l'assassin | Sgt. Joseph Bouvier |
| Alain Delon | Mr. Klein | Monsieur Klein | Mr. Klein | |
| Gérard Depardieu | The Last Woman | La Dernière Femme | Gérard | |
| Patrick Dewaere | The Best Way to Walk | La Meilleure Façon de marcher | Marc | |
| 1978 (3rd) |
Jean Rochefort | Drummer-Crab | Le Crabe-tambour | Captain |
| Alain Delon | Death of a Corrupt Man | Mort d'un pourri | Xavier 'Xav' Maréchal | |
| Gérard Depardieu | This Sweet Sickness | Dites-lui que je l'aime | David Martinaud | |
| Patrick Dewaere | Judge Fayard Called the Sheriff | Le Juge Fayard dit le Shériff | Judge Fayard | |
| Charles Denner | The Man Who Loved Women | L'Homme qui aimait les femmes | Bertrand Morane | |
| 1979 (4th) |
Michel Serrault | Birds of a Feather | La Cage aux folles | Albin Mougeotte/Zaza Napoli |
| Claude Brasseur | A Simple Story | Une histoire simple | Serge | |
| Jean Carmet | The Sugar | Le Sucre | Adrien Courtois | |
| Gérard Depardieu | Raoul-Renaud Homecourt |
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
History
Superlatives
| Superlative | Best Actor | Best Supporting Actor | Overall (including Most Promising Actor) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actor with most awards | Michel Serrault | 3 | Niels Arestrup | 3 | Michel Serrault Niels Arestrup André Dussollier Mathieu Amalric |
3 |
| Actor with most nominations | Gérard Depardieu | 17 | André Dussollier Fabrice Luchini Guy Marchand Jean-Pierre Marielle |
5 | Gérard Depardieu | 17 |
| Actor with most nominations without ever winning |
Patrick Dewaere | 5 | Jean-Pierre Marielle | 5 | Jean-Pierre Marielle | 7 |
| Film with most nominations | Le Sucre Tandem Itinerary of a Spoiled Child Le Souper Les Visiteurs The Intouchables |
2 | Subway Polisse |
3 | Subway La Haine The Officers' Ward A Prophet |
4 |
| Oldest winner | Jean-Louis Trintignant | 83 | Michael Lonsdale | 80 | Jean-Louis Trintignant | 83 |
| Oldest nominee | Michel Bouquet | 89 | Jacques Dufilho | 86 | Michel Bouquet | 89 |
| Youngest winner | Pierre Niney | 26 | Jacques Villeret | 28 | Pierre Niney | 26 |
| Youngest nominee | Vincent Lacoste | 22 | Thomas Langmann | 23 | Milo Machado-Graner | 15 |
Multiple wins and nominations
|
The following individuals received two or more Best Actor awards:
|
The following individuals received three or more Best Actor nominations:
|
One actor has the record of most consecutive nominations with 4: Gerard Depardieu (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980/ 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986/ 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991)