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| - Roman Polanski's new film "An Officer and a Spy" topped the list of nominations on Wednesday for the "French Oscars" sparking fury from feminists. The controversial director has been wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl since 1978 and is persona non grata in Hollywood. His period drama about the Dreyfus affair, which rocked France at the turn of the 20th century, is in line for 12 Cesars, the French equivalent of the Oscars. The head of the French film academy Alain Terzian said it "should not take moral positions" about giving awards. But their choice was swifty condemned by feminists and some film critics. "If rape was an art, give all the Cesars to Polanski," tweeted the French women's group, Osez le feminisme (Dare to Be Feminist). "By celebrating a fugitive rapist and child sex criminal, we silence the victims," added the group, which said it would demonstrate outside the awards ceremony on February 28. British film critic Caspar Salmon was equally scathing. "The Cesar awards are literally inviting an actor who was a victim of sexual assault by a director when she was a child (Adele Haenel), and a director who sexually abused a child (Roman Polanski), to be in the same room together for a big celebration of film." Haenel -- who was nominated for best actress for her performance in "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" -- touched a nerve last year by telling how she was sexually harassed from the age of 12 on her first film. French director Christophe Ruggia was charged with sexual assault on a minor earlier this month. Polanski, 86, won both best director and the critics' prize at the Venice film festival in August for "An Officer and a Spy", which has been a big hit at the French box office despite a wave of protests. Some screenings had to be cancelled after feminist protesters invaded or blockaded cinemas. The publicity campaign for the film was also halted after French photographer Valentine Monnier claimed that she had also been raped by the director in 1975. Monnier, an 18-year-old model and actress at the time, said Polanski tried to give her a pill as he beat her "into submission" at his Swiss chalet. Polanski "absolutely denied" assaulting Monnier, pouring scorn on her story. "Obviously I have no memory of it because it is false," he told Paris Match magazine. The director -- who sparked uproar at Venice by comparing his "hounding" to the anti-Semitic persecution Dreyfus suffered -- blamed the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for his woes. He said Weinstein had tried to brand him a "child rapist" to stop him winning an Oscar in 2003 for "The Pianist". The Oscars' academy snubbed "An Officer and a Spy" in its nominations earlier this month, but gave another French film "Les Miserables" the nod in the best foreign film category. The drama, set in one of the restive poor suburbs of Paris, picked up 11 Cesar nominations, just behind Polanski's film. fg/jj
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