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On paper the genre-bending crime musical which centres around a beefy tattooed Mexican cartel boss who undergoes gender confirmation surgery is an unlikely success story for Netflix, which has been streaming the film since November.
But the movie has been quietly adding to its plaudits for months, starting with the huge splash it made at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize and the first Best Actress Award for an ensemble.
Now the film, starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez in its female-led ensemble cast, is making headway in its Oscars bid. Last week it led the Academy Awards shortlists, taking six slots in International Feature, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, Original Score, and Original Song for two of its musical numbers.
The film has some tangled origins. The French production is based on Audiard's opera libretto of the same name, which was in turn loosely adapted from Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute.
Set around Mexico City, it centers around topics such as family, ambition, possibility of change, cartels, human disappearances, gender-affirmation, money and corruption.
It focuses on cartel boss Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón) who has a smart, but undervalued lawyer named Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña) kidnapped.
Manitas wants gender confirmation surgery, and for Rita to handle the logistics: Hiring the discreet surgeon, faking Manitas' death and transporting the wife, Jessi (Gomez) and two kids to their new home in Switzerland; in return, Rita will get rich.
Four years later, Rita's gotten a glow up. Gone are her bush eyebrows and frumpy suit and she´s leading a cosmopolitan life in London. Then, Rita meets another woman who´s gone through a major transformation, Emilia Pérez (Gascón).
Audiard plays briefly with the idea that Rita assumes Emilia is there to kill her, to rid the world of any remaining evidence of those who know what happened.
In actuality, she just misses her kids and wants them back in Mexico to live with her. It's up to Rita to get them to move once more, in with Emilia, posing as an aunt they've never met before.
Chief among its many themes is sisterhood and in his first acceptance speech of the Golden Globes, Audiard declared: 'I don't have sisters so maybe this is why I made a film about sisterhood. If there were more sisters in the world, it might be a better place.'
Major female players in Hollywood have championed the film with Meryl Streep praising the movie and Gomez' performance in particular, describing it as 'beautiful, smudged, sensual, incredible'.
The Spanish-language French musical won best film, female supporting actor for Zoe Saldaña, original song, and film not in the English language
The movie has been quietly adding to its plaudits for months, starting with the huge splash it made at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival , where it won the Jury Prize (pictured as Selena Gomez)
Critics meanwhile have been falling over themselves to post the most rave reviews with glowing think pieces lauding its bravery in focusing on underrepresented characters and delivering 'provocative' subject matter through a musical genre.
Amongst the hype though is criticism directed at the depiction of a transwoman.
Harron Walker for The Cut led the charge, writing: 'I don’t demand total realism from every film that I see. I can even appreciate the camp, whether intentional or not, of Emilia waking up from her 5-million simultaneous surgeries, her face bandaged like a mummy save for her eyes and lips.'
'But I expect that a filmmaker so taken by the concept of transitioning, one who’s displayed a certain level of conscious sensitivity in his previous efforts to depict lives unlike his own, to at least display an informed understanding of what that concept actually looks like in practice.'
David Opie for Yahoo declared: 'It’s the film’s preoccupation with the surface exterior of Emilia herself that ends up being tedious, playing into transphobic tropes long thought banished to the realms of hell where Buffalo Bill’s dress and Ace Ventura’s hair wax can be found.'
The movie is a breakout moment for lead Karla , 52, who transitioned in 2018 after years spent acting in Mexican telenovelas
Set around Mexico City, it centers around topics such as family, ambition, possibility of change, cartels, human disappearances, gender-affirmation, money and corruption
The actress responded to a viral clip of Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez's criticising her accent which was deemed 'indefensible.'
Gomez replied to his critique in the comment section of TikTok clip showing the CODA actor's comments: 'I understand where you are coming from..I'm sorry I did the best I could with the time I was given. Doesn't take away from how much work and heart I put into this movie.'
Something to celebrate though is the fact that the movie is a breakout moment for lead Karla, 52, who transitioned in 2018 after years spent acting in Mexican telenovelas.
Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew during the movie's best picture win on Sunday, Karla declared 'the light always wins over darkness'.
'I have a lot of things to say to you because you can maybe put us in jail, you can beat us up, but you never can take away our soul, our resistance, or our identity.
'And I want to say to you, raise your voice and say, "I am who I am, not who you want."'
GOLDEN GLOBES 2025 WINNERS
FILM
Best Film - Drama
The Brutalist - WINNER
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys
September 5
Best Film - Musical or Comedy
Anora
Challengers
Emilia Pérez - WINNER
A Real Pain
The Substance
Wicked
Emilia Perez earned top honor Best Film - Musical or Comedy
Best Non-English Language Film
All We Imagine as Light
Emilia Pérez - WINNER
The Girl with the Needle
I'm Still Here
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Vermiglio
Best Animated Film
Flow - WINNER
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Moana 2
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
Cinematic And Box Office Achievement
Alien: Romulus
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Deadpool & Wolverine
Gladiator II
Inside Out 2
Twisters
Wicked - WINNER
The Wild Robot
Best Actress - Drama
Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
Angelina Jolie, Maria
Nicole Kidman, Babygirl
Tilda Swinton, The Room Next Door
Fernanda Torres, I'm Still Here - WINNER
Kate Winslet, Lee
Best Actor - Drama
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist - WINNER
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Daniel Craig, Queer
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice
Adrien Brody was recognized in the Best Actor - Drama category for The Brutalist
Best Actress - Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams, Nightbitch
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance - WINNER
Zendaya, Challengers
Best Actor - Musical or Comedy
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Hugh Grant, Heretic
Gabriel LaBelle, Saturday Night
Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness
Glen Powell, Hit Man
Sebastian Stan, A Different Man - WINNER
Best Supporting Actress - Musical or Comedy
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Selena Gomez, Emilia Pérez
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Margaret Qualley, The Substance
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez - WINNER
Zoe Saldana was crowned Best Supporting Actress - Musical or Comedy for Emilia Perez
Best supporting Actor - Musical or Comedy
Yura Borisov, Anora
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain - WINNER
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
Denzel Washington, Gladiator II
Best director
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker, Anora
Edward Berger, Conclave
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist - WINNER
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light
Best screenplay
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
Peter Straughan, Conclave - WINNER
Best Original Song
Beautiful That Way, The Last Showgirl
Compress/Repress, Challengers
El Mal, Emilia Pérez - WINNER
Forbidden Road, Better Man
Kiss The Sky, The Wild Robot
Mi Camino, Emilia Pérez
Best Original Film Score
Conclave
The Brutalist
The Wild Robot
Emilia Pérez
Challengers - WINNER
Dune: Part Two
TV
Best TV Series - Drama
The Diplomat
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Shōgun - WINNER
Squid Game
Slow Horses
The Day of the Jackal
Shōgun was the most honored television series with four including coveted Best TV Series - Drama
Best TV Series - Comedy or Musical
Abbott Elementary
The Bear
The Gentlemen
Hacks - WINNER
Nobody Wants This
Only Murders in the Building
Best Limited TV Series
Baby Reindeer - WINNER
Disclaimer
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
The Penguin
Ripley
True Detective: Night Country
Best TV Actress - Drama
Kathy Bates, Matlock
Emma D'Arcy, House of the Dragon
Maya Erskine, Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Keira Knightley, Black Doves
Anna Sawai, Shōgun - WINNER
Keri Russell, The Diplomat
Best TV Actor – Drama
Donald Glover, Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Jake Gyllenhaal, Presumed Innocent
Gary Oldman, Slow Horses
Eddie Redmayne, The Day of the Jackal
Hiroyuki Sanada, Shōgun - WINNER
Billy Bob Thornton, Landman (Paramount+)
Best TV Actress - Comedy or Musical
Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building
Kathryn Hahn, Agatha All Along
Jean Smart, Hacks - WINNER
Jean Smart earned Best TV Actress - Comedy or Musical for Hacks
Best TV Actor - Comedy or Musical
Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This
Ted Danson, A Man on the Inside
Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building
Jason Segel, Shrinking
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Jeremy Allen White, The Bear - WINNER
Best TV Actress - Limited Series
Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer
Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country - WINNER
Cristin Milioti, The Penguin
Sofía Vergara, Griselda
Naomi Watts, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans
Kate Winslet, The Regime
Best TV Actor - Limited Series
Colin Farrell, The Penguin - WINNER
Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer
Kevin Kline, Disclaimer
Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Ewan McGregor, A Gentleman in Moscow
Andrew Scott, Ripley
Best Supporting Actress - TV
Liza Colón-Zayas, The Bear
Hannah Einbinder, Hacks
Dakota Fanning, Ripley
Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer - WINNER
Allison Janney, The Diplomat
Kali Reis, True Detective: Night Country
Jessica Gunning took home Best Supporting Actress - TV for her incredible work on Baby Reindeer
Best Supporting Actor - TV
Tadanobu Asano, Shōgun - WINNER
Javier Bardem, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Harrison Ford, Shrinking
Jack Lowden, Slow Horses
Diego Luna, La Maquina
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear
Best TV Stand-Up Comedy Performance
Jamie Foxx, What Had Happened Was
Nikki Glaser, Someday You'll Die
Seth Meyers, Dad Man Walking
Adam Sandler, Love You
Ali Wong, Single Lady - WINNER
Ramy Youssef, More Feelings
Ali Wong beat out Nikki Glaser for Best TV Stand-Up Comedy Performance
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