With its four trophies won at the 2025 Golden Globes, Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard becomes the most awarded French film during this Hollywood ceremony, tied with the previous record held by Chinatown by Franco-Polish director Roman Polanski, who also won four awards in 1975.
Jacques Audiard's irreverent musical comedy, which chronicles the gender transition of a Mexican cartel leader, won the double for best musical film and best foreign film. Added to this are the prizes for best supporting actress and best original song.
Already doubly awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, this success at the Golden Globes portends a bright future at the Oscars on March 3. The film appears in five categories according to the latest list of shortlisted films, published in mid-December by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. While the final nominations will be revealed on January 17, there is hope. Emilia Perez could join the list of the most awarded French films in Hollywood.
The absolute record held by “ The Artist » since 2012
Without a doubt, the most awarded French film across the Atlantic remains The Artist by Michel Hazanavicus. The silent black and white comedy won more than a hundred awards around the world, including three Golden Globes and five Oscars the year following its release, in 2012. And above all: the film won the very prestigious distinction for best film, a title very rarely awarded to non-American productions.
To this day, Jean Dujardin remains the only French actor to have received an Oscar for best actor and the second to have received this distinction at the Golden Globes, after Gérard Depardieu in 1991 for his role in Green Card.
Roman Polanski, the multi-Oscar winning French director
Only five other French films can also boast of having won several Oscars, while in 96 editions, France has obtained 345 nominations and been awarded 95 times.
Released in 1979, Tess by Roman Polanski obtains three gold statuettes (best photography, best artistic direction, best costumes). More than twenty years later in 2002, The Pianistalso directed by Roman Polanski, also received three Oscars, including best director. Convicted in the United States in a rape case and having fled the country since 1977, the controversial French director was unable to attend the ceremony. In 2018, in the midst of the MeToo wave, Roman Polanski was excluded from the Academy of Oscars.
Three French films have won two Oscars: A man and a woman by Claude Lelouch, who won the 1967 Oscar for best foreign film and the Oscar for best original screenplay; Z by Costa-Gavras who received the double distinction of best foreign film and best editing in 1970; and finally The Kid by Olivier Dahan, Oscar for best makeup and best actress.
With her interpretation of Edith Piaf, Marion Cottillard became the third French actress to win an Oscar after Simone Signoret and Claudette Colbert.
The most awarded French composers and artists at the Oscars
In the world of cinema, the most awarded French artists in Hollywood are composers. Michel Legrand dominates the charts with thirteen Oscar nominations and three statuettes won, including the first in 1969 for the film's soundtrack The Thomas Crown Affair and this title became a global hit: The windmills of your mind (The mills of my heart).
We also find at the top of this ranking Maurice Jarre, nominated nine times for the Oscars and three times winner. In 1963, the French composer was distinguished for the music of the film Lawrence of Arabia. An exploit that he renewed three years later, with the soundtrack of Doctor Zhivago. In 1985, Maurice Jarre won his last statuette at the age of 61 for the soundtrack of The route to Indiaalso awarded at the Golden Globes.
Finally, Alexandre Desplats is a regular at Hollywood ceremonies with eleven Oscar nominations and already two statuettes to his credit, including one for the music of The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and another for the soundtrack of The Shape of Water (2017). This Oscar-winning film also earned him a second Golden Globe, after the first received in 2010 for his compositions for the film The veil of illusions.
Alexandre Desplats is significantly absent from the list of pre-selected for the 2025 Oscars, replaced this year by the French duo Camille and Clément Ducol, who could be crowned for the film's music Emilia Perez. Jacques Audiard's work is currently preselected in five categories with six nominations: best international film, best sound, best makeup and hairstyling, best original music and best soundtrack.
