Emilia Pérez

StarringCinematographyPaul Guilhaume^[1]Edited byJuliette WelflingMusic byDistributed byPathé132 minutesCountryFranceLanguageSpanish^[2]Budget€25 million^[3]Box office$5.8 million^[4]

Emilia Pérez is a 2024 Spanish-language French musical crime comedy film written and directed by Jacques Audiard,^[5] based on Audiard's opera libretto of the same name, which was in turn loosely adapted from Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute.^[6] It stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir and Édgar Ramírez. The original songs for the film were contributed by Camille, while its original score was provided by Clément Ducol. The choreographic sections of the film are signed by Damien Jalet.

The film premiered on 18 May 2024 at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, and was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in its main competition section, where it won the Jury Prize and its female ensemble won the Best Actress award. It was theatrically released by Pathé on 21 August 2024. It was selected as the French entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.^[7]

The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self. This musical odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness.

In January 2022, Télérama released a 5-episode program covering in detail Audiard's pre-production for the film.^[10] Audiard developed the film's screenplay from what was originally intended to be an opera libretto in four acts.^[11] The title character was inspired by a chapter from Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute.^[12] Emilia Pérez marks the first time Audiard has written a film alone. However, Thomas Bidegain, who co-wrote several films with Audiard, served as a creative collaborator on the film.^[13] Clément Ducol composed the original score for the film, while French singer Camille wrote all of the original songs, with the assistance of a Mexican translator, and performed them for the demo.^[12] Damien Jalet choreographed the musical sequences.^[11]

Filming was set to begin in autumn 2022 but was delayed by six months due to scheduling conflicts with the cast members.^[5][14] It was originally set to take place on location in Mexico but was moved to a studio near Paris instead, in accordance with Audiard's wishes.^[5] The interior scenes included a reconstruction of an "authentic Mexican backdrop".^[13] Audiard stated that the studio setting would afford him the ability to "produce more form" and give him "more freedom for the parts that are sung and choreographed."^[11] Principal photography began in May 2023 in the Île-de-France region, before wrapping on 5 July 2023.^[15][16][17]

The film is produced by Pascal Caucheteux through his company Why Not Productions, and also by Audiard and Valérie Schermann through their company Page 114;^[13] in coproduction with Pathé, France 2 Cinéma and Anthony Vaccarello's Saint Laurent Productions, a division of the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent. Vaccarello also created the costumes for the film.^[18]

Emilia Pérez was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 18 May 2024.^[19] The film received a standing ovation with reports that it lasted either nine minutes^[20] or 11 minutes.^[21]

World sales were handled by The Veterans.^[5] Shortly after its premiere, Netflix beat out multiple studios and was in negotiations to acquire distribution rights to the film for North America and the United Kingdom for $12 million; the deal ultimately closed at $8 million instead.^[22][23][24] The film was theatrically released in France on 21 August 2024 by Pathé.^[25] The film made its North American premiere at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.^[26] It played at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2024.^[27] It was also selected in Icons at the 29th Busan International Film Festival to be screened in October 2024.^[28]

The film is set to receive a limited theatrical release in the U.S. and Canada on 1 November, before debuting on Netflix on 13 November.^[29]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 56 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Karla Sofía Gascón is Emilia Perez in a swaggering musical crime thriller of genre-bending fascination that is also an unapologetically trans story."^[30] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[31] On AlloCiné, the film received an average rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 38 reviews from French critics.^[32]

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
Cannes Film Festival	25 May 2024	Palme d'Or	Jacques Audiard	Nominated	[33]
		Jury Prize		Won	[34]
		Best Actress	Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Zoe Saldaña	Won
		Queer Palm	Jacques Audiard	Nominated	[35]
		Soundtrack Award	Clément Ducol & Camille	Won	[36]
Middleburg Film Festival	20 October 2024	Spotlight Actor Award	Zoe Saldaña	Won	[37]
Mill Valley Film Festival	5 October 2024	Outstanding Ensemble Performance	Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Mark Ivanir, Adriana Paz, Édgar Ramírez and Zoe Saldaña	Won	[38]
San Sebastián International Film Festival	28 September 2024	Sebastiane Award	Emilia Pérez	Pending	[39]
Telluride Film Festival	30 August 2024	Silver Medallion	Jacques Audiard	Won	[40]
Toronto International Film Festival	15 September 2024	TIFF Variety Artisan Award	Clément Ducol & Camille	Won	[41]
		People's Choice Award	Emilia Pérez	Runner-up	[42]

• List of submissions to the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
• List of French submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

• Emilia Pérez at IMDb