Several actors walked out of the César awards ceremony in Paris after Roman Polanski won best director.
Polanski, who was convicted the statutory rape of a 13-year-old in 1977, took home an award at France's equivalent of the Oscars.
The Polish-French director fled the US after his rape conviction in the 1970s.
He has since faced other accusations of sexual assault.
Actress Adèle Haenel, who has said she was sexually abused as a child by another director, was one of the women who walked out of the ceremony after Polanski's win was announced.
READ MORE: Third woman accuses fugitive director Roman Polanski of sexual assaulting her as a minor
She left the room saying "shame!", and was followed by a host of others who opted to walk out the ceremony in protest.
A l'annonce du César de la Meilleure Réalisation pour Roman Polanski ("J'accuse"), Adèle Haenel quitte la salle.
— CANAL+ (@canalplus) February 28, 2020
Le meilleur des #César2020 > https://t.co/ipnVwouBeV pic.twitter.com/7xa0CTbU3H
Women’s rights activists have called for a boycott of Friday’s Cesars ceremony in Paris – where the director’s latest movie leads this year’s nominations – and plastered anti-Polanski banners and graffiti at the event venue and the Cesar academy headquarters.
Polanski’s An Officer And A Spy, which addresses anti-Semitic persecution of French army captain Alfred Dreyfus in the 1890s, won three awards at the Cesars on Friday.
Polanski is still wanted in the United States decades after he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 and then fled.
READ MORE: Roman Polanski sex assault victim asks judge to drop case as 'act of mercy'
Last year, a Frenchwoman came forward to accuse Polanski of raping her in 1975. Polanski denied it, and the allegations are too old for an investigation.
But the accusation put the director under fresh scrutiny in France, where he has long been revered as one of the country’s premier filmmakers despite the outstanding rape charge in the US.
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