Producer and outgoing board of governors member Margaret Ménégoz has taken over as interim president of the Cesar Academy. The new president is to oversee a transition period until a new board is announced in April.

Ménégoz, who has produced films for Michael Haneke, Eric Rohmer and Andrzej Wajda under her Les Films du Losange banner, and served as president of UniFrance from 2003 until 2009, will take over immediately, replacing recently resigned president Alain Terzian at the Cesar’s televised ceremony on Feb. 28. She will act as interim president until an April 20 general assembly.

On Feb. 13, the 21-member board of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema – the organization that oversees the Cesar Academy – resigned en masse following mounting industry pushback criticizing the board’s opaque practices and boy’s club atmosphere.

The Academy had also been under fire after nominating the Roman Polanski directed “An Officer and a Spy” for 12 awards.

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At the request of France’s Minister of Culture, the Centre National de Cinema has stepped into mediate, with the national film body overseeing the task of overhauling the Cesar’s board of governors and modernizing its voting body.

Following the naming of a provisional board on April 20, the CNC has promised additional general assemblies during the spring and summer in order to help expand the Cesar Academy, promising a voting body with greater “representation, diversity and parity.”

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