Awards season is closer than you think, and Netflix is kicking off the fall corridor with a first look at the streamer’s major contender “Emilia Pérez.” The “musical epic” film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this May and took home the Cannes Jury Prize as well as a historic Best Actress prize that was shared between the film’s three leading ladies: Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldańa and Karla Sofía Gascón.
Written and directed by Jacques Audiard (“A Prophet,” “Rust and Bone”), the film is described as an “audacious fever dream” and the story follows the journey of four women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. 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.
In TheWrap critic Ben Croll’s review from Cannes, he praised the gusto of Audiard in telling the story of a trans cartel kingpin. “That the Spanish-language film is also a full-blown musical, chock-full of deliriously choreographed numbers and ear-catching ditties about vaginoplasties and tracheal shaves would also reflect Audiard’s high perch. This the film one makes with a mantle full of prizes and zero f—-s to give,” he said.
Netflix scooped the film up at Cannes for $8 million after a bidding war, and the feature is now set to play the fall film festival circuit with a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Check out the trailer below. “Emilia Pérez” will be released in select theaters on Nov. 1 before streaming on Netflix on Nov. 13.
