Emilia Pérez is a movie that has caused a big stir recently, winning many awards. The movie stars Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón…

At the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, Emilia Pérez was one of the most prominent films, winning the Jury Prize and the Best Actress award for the entire female cast, including Selena Gomez . The film was later acquired by the online platform Netflix and was recently selected to represent France at the 97th Academy Awards, taking place in 2025.

Emilia Pérez is a story, a journey of four women pursuing happiness told through the language of music, with a skillful blend of drama, humor, dark conspiracies and the brightness of the desire to live as a true human being. The transgender content in the film is mentioned in a bold but humane way, inspired by the performance of a real transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón.

Emilia Pérez film crew at the Cannes Film Festival (Photo: Getty Images)

Emilia Pérez also marks the return to the Oscar race for French director Jacques Audiard, who was last nominated for 2009’s A Prophet .

The selection of Emilia Pérez to represent France at the Oscars continues to create controversy over its appropriateness as the dream of winning the golden statuette grows bigger and bigger for this country. The last time France was officially nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film shortlist was Les Misérables in 2020, but the last film to win an Oscar for France was more than 3 decades ago with Indochine (1993). Last year, France also caused public opinion to be divided when it selected director Tran Anh Hung’s A Taste of Things for the Oscars instead of Anatomy of a Fall and missed out on the final Top 5 nominations.