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The resignations come just two weeks before the
Cesar Awards, France's equivalent of the Oscars, which featured
12 nominations for Polanski's movie about Alfred Dreyfus, a
Jewish French officer unfairly accused of spying for Germany in
the 1890s.
"To honor those who made films in 2019, to regain serenity and
make the cinema festival a celebration, the board of directors
of the (film academy) made a unanimous decision to resign," the
French film academy said in a statement.
Feminist groups had decried the nominations and called for a
boycott of the film. Dozens of film industry personalities –
including "X-Men" actor Omar Sy and Berenice Bejo of the 2011
film "The Artist" - had denounced the academy's "opaqueness" in
an open letter.
Polanski launched his new film in France last year just days
after a French actress accused him of having raped her in 1975,
when she was 18 years old, during a ski holiday in Gstaad,
Switzerland.
Polanski, now 86, has denied the accusation.
The French-Polish director fled the United States after pleading
guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in
Los Angeles.
Accusations against Polanski predate the sexual harassment
scandal that embroiled Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein
in 2017. But Polanski's history came under renewed scrutiny as
the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment grew in
response to the allegations against Weinstein, who is on trial
for rape and sexual assault in New York.
Polanski was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences in 2018.
(Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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