Csar Awards, France's Oscars, tap Roman Polanski to preside over gala

Filmmaker Roman Polanski will preside over this year's CsarAwards ceremony, the French equivalent of the Oscars.

The Academy of Arts and Techniques of Cinema said Wednesday the 83-year-old Polanski is expected to deliver the opening and closing speeches during the Feb. 24 ceremony in Paris.

Polanski, who lives in France, won eight Csarsover the course of his career, including for best director in 2014 for his film Venus in Furs.

Alain Terzian, the president of the academy, said Polanski is an "insatiable esthete reinventing his art and works over the years."

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Polanski is wanted in the U.S. in a case involving sex with a minor that has been hanging over him for almost 40 years. He won the best-director Academy Award for The Pianistin 2003.