France has picked Jacques Audiard Spanish language musical Emilia Perez to represent it at the Best International Feature Film category at Oscars 2025.
Emilia Perez stars transgender actor Karla Sofia Gascón as the lead protagonist and cartel leader Emilia, who hires underappreciated lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldana) to help fake her death in order to help Perez live authentically as herself.
The film which premiered theatrically in France in August 21, won its four actresses Gascón, Saldana, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, a collective Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, France. It drew a crowd of 737,000 spectators, grossing about $5.9 million. It is set to premiere November 13, on Netflix.
The film faced stiff competition from a shortlist of four film including Alexandre de La Patelliere’s and Mathieu Delaporte’s ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, French-produced Indian drama ‘All We Imagine As Light’ by Payal Kapadia and Alain Guiraudie’s ‘Misericordia’.
Emilia Perez is produced by Why Not Productions and Audiard’s Page 114. International sales were handled by The Veterans, which brokered the Netflix deal with CAA Media Finance.
