Audiard satisfied “to have done the job”

“As I am superstitious, I didn’t prepare anything. It’s going to be a bit laborious.” Jacques Audiard apologized on Sunday in Los Angeles when he took the stage for the first time at the Golden Globes to receive the trophy for best foreign language film. His Spanish-speaking musical drama about a drug trafficker making a gender transition had already opened the ceremony with fanfare by winning the statuette for best supporting role for Zoe Saldana. Throughout the evening, Emilia Perez’s purse also won the trophy for best song for her anthem The Evil and especially the prize for best film or musical.

Anxious by nature, Jacques Audiard did not hide the pleasure that this harvest of victories aroused. The filmmaker confided to AFP his relief “for doing the work”. With a record ten Golden Globe nominations, Emilia Perez was considered the favorite. “When there are a lot of nominations, there is always the risk of being disappointed”noted Jacques Audiard. “We are not going to hide our faces, what happened does not happen often”he smiled. “Tonight it’s very pleasant, it’s very good. And then I’m so happy that Zoe received an award.”

“From a provincial competition to an Olympic competition”

It remains to be seen whether these awards will serve as a springboard towards the Oscars, where Netflix, the broadcaster ofEmilia Perez pushes the feature film into all major categories, including best film. Nominations will be announced on January 17. The feature film was selected by France to represent it in the best international film category and hopes to land one of the five coveted slots. France has not won in three decades, when Indochina won the statuette.

Jacques Audiard had already been nominated in this section in 2010, for his prison film A Prophet. In October, he told AFP that he was “terrified” by the Oscar race for his latest film, despite his previous experience. “It’s as if you went from a provincial competition to an Olympic competition”he explained during an interview in Los Angeles.

Jury Prize in Cannes, Emilia Perez recounts the repentance of Manitas. A powerful Mexican drug lord, at the top of the macho pyramid, who orchestrates his disappearance to achieve his deepest aspiration: to become a woman, Emilia. Finally free to be herself, the ex-criminal sets up an association to help victims of drug trafficking. She also reconnects with her wife and children, who believe she is dead, by pretending to be a distant relative.

The results of these 82nd Golden Globes suggest that Emilia Perez’s most formidable rival will be The Brutalist by Brady Corbet, which will be released in France on February 12. This vast 3h30 fresco, with intermission, about an architect survivor of the Holocaust, who tries to rebuild his life in the United States, won a prestigious trifecta on Sunday: best dramatic film, best director for Brady Corbet, and best actor for Adrien Brody.