Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” selected by France to represent it at the Oscars – Libération

After its success at Cannes, a new award in Los Angeles? The musical comedy Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard will be proposed by France to compete in the category of “best foreign film” at the Oscars ceremony in March 2025, the National Center of Cinematography (CNC) announced Wednesday. Shot in Spanish, between a dark thriller and choreographies to the sound of reggaeton, this film tells the story of the repentance of a Mexican drug lord who changes his life and becomes a woman.

It won the Jury Prize at the last Cannes Film Festival and also earned a collective acting award for Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and the transgender lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón. The French application must be sent to the Academy of Oscars, which will announce on January 17, 2025 which countries are nominated in this category.

A crisis last year after the choice of the CNC

Last year, the committee responsible for choosing the French candidate came under heavy criticism for preferring The passion of Dodin Bouffantfrom Tran Anh Hung, to the candidate expected by many, Anatomy of a fallPalme d’Or at Cannes and success in France and internationally. France was ultimately not selected to compete in the category of best foreign film. The episode resulted in a major renewal of the committee of professionals responsible for choosing the French candidate. Now composed of eleven film professionals with equal numbers of women and men (including one of the producers of Anatomy of a fall) and chaired by Charles Tesson, former head of Critics’ Week in Cannes, the commission pre-selected four films last week.

In addition to Jacques Audiard’s film, The Count of Monte Cristoone of the biggest box office successes of the year, as well as two more confidential films, Mercy by Alain Guiraudie and All we imagine as lightby young Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia, were in the running.