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Is it us, or has this year’s lead-up to the 97th annual Academy Awards been a bit of a roller-coaster ride?

After the nominations were announced roughly a month ago, we knew going in that there wouldn’t be a clear front-runner like last year, when Oppenheimer entered the competition with enough velocity to make you think it had already won. (You could have dubbed the ceremony the “Oscar-ppenheimers” and simply called it a day.) There was a lot of love for The Brutalist, Brady Corbet’s extraordinary shout-out...

Showcasing some of the biggest shows on the open market – “King & Conqueror,” “Sandokan,” “Walking With Dinosaurs”– as well as a bevy of awaited titles – “Bookish,” “Cold Water,” “Maigret,” “A Prophet,” “This City is Ours”– the 2025 London TV Screening is again a powerhouse showcase of some of the biggest TV highlights of 2024, plus the trends shaping TV markets.

To help you cut through the slates, here’s Variety’s picks of 20+ shows that will whet buyers’ appetites.

“All Her Fault,” (NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution)

Sarah Snook, fresh off “Succession” and an Olivier win for “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” plays Marissa Irvine. She arrives to collect her son Milo from his first playdate, but the woman who answers the door isn’t a mother she recognizes. She doesn’t have Milo, she says, and has never heard of him. And so, the nightmare begins. Dakota Fanning, Jake Lacy, Michael Peña,...

The London TV Screenings, or London Screenings for short, the global TV industry event running Feb. 23-28, is ready for its close-up. The once low-key affair, where networks and sales outfits screen their latest shows for international buyers, has grown to can’t-miss status over the years. 2025 will be London Screenings’ time to shine, particularly without any competition from the now-defunct Mip TV.

That said, Mip will be holding its own inaugural Mip London event during the week, featuring panel discussions on industry trends, hot new properties from the likes of South Korea and Japan, as well as a session with David Beckham and Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria.

The London Screenings come at an inflection point for the global TV industry. After a sustained boom in high-end drama, networks, and streamers are again cutting costs and betting more on lower-cost non-fiction and reality shows. In the fiction arena,...

Welcome to Deadline’s London TV Screenings list, our definitive look at next week’s buzzy event taking Soho by storm. Hundreds, if not thousands of buyers will be in town between Sunday, February 23 and Friday, February 28, and if you’re wondering who’s exhibiting and what’s on offer and want to dive deeper into the sellers’ strategies, we’ve done the work for you, presenting profiles from more than 30 exhibiting sales houses. Below, check out profiles for all the Americans and companies from the rest of the world exhibiting at the London TV Screenings bar Disney, which declined to take part. We strived to get three picks from each distributor as and where possible. Read on, and find all our London TV Screenings content here.

The Americans

Amazon MGM Studios

Key Show

The Institute – When twelve-year-old genius Luke Ellis’ parents are murdered, he is kidnapped and awakens in The Institute,...

French writer-director Jacques Audiard has proven himself a genre-spanning talent. He’s helmed such diverse features as 1994’s thriller See How They Fall, 2009’s Academy Award-nominated gangster film A Prophet, 2012’s devastating romance Rust and Bone, and 2015’s Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or-winning portrait of refugees escaping war, Dheepan. His work is united by the fierce pursuit of his singular visions. For his latest project, Emilia Pérez, Audiard set out to combine elements of musicals, film noir, and crime dramas, and he recruited a troupe of gifted performers and artisans all committed to realizing his ambitious tale of a woman on a quest to live as her truest self. The result is a provocative fever dream, a feat of cinematic fearlessness.

Karla Sofía Gascón (Rebelde) stars in the title role of the Spanish-language film as a menacing cartel leader looking for someone to discreetly assist her in seeking gender-affirming...

The 40th Santa Barbara Film Festival held their International Directors Panel on Sunday, February 9. Directors Gints Zilbalodis (“Flow”), Walter Salles (“I’m Still Here”), Mohammad Rasoulof (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”), and Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”) joined festival Director Roger Durling for a wide ranging Q&a at the Arlington Theater.

Coming off a contentious last couple weeks for his film’s awards campaign, Audiard had a more light-hearted opportunity to reflect on his Best Picture nominee. Durling highlighted the director’s history with portraying music onscreen throughout his career. Audiard responded by noting how his “natural masochism” influences him to make films in languages he doesn’t speak or understand.

“It’s incredible because the only memory I actually have of really articulating music and opera in my work was for my second feature, ‘A Self-Made Hero,'” Audiard said. “At that time, I had thought of making a...

The recently uncovered social media posts by “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón in which she attacked, among various things — Islam, George Floyd and a more diverse Oscars — have thrown an unexpected wrench into the awards race.

Within hours of the historic tweets being resurfaced and translated into English, Gascón apologized, saying she was “deeply sorry.” Things spiraled further over the weekend, when the actress did an interview with CNN en Español, booked without Netflix’s involvement, and addressed the situation (once again) in an Instagram post.

But by then, awards soothes had already started rewriting their predictions, and Netflix’s French-made Spanish-language musical about a Mexican drug kingpin who undergoes gender-affirming surgery — previously an awards frontrunner, winning multiple Golden Globes and leading the Oscar nominations with 13 — was being scrubbed from lists.

Almost all the attention since has focused on how this new scandal could impact the Oscars, where Netflix...

With thirteen Oscar nominations, the most for any international feature, Emilia Pérez has become one of the most talked-about films this year. The musical crime drama set in Mexico has been controversial since its Golden Globes win, with many native Mexicans rejecting the film as an authentic portrayal and criticizing several cultural and thematic elements.

Starring Karla Sofía Gascón as the eponymous character, the film follows a cartel gangster who wants to undergo gender-affirming surgery and lead a more authentic and honest life. While many from the industry lauded the film and it even won the Jury Prize at Cannes, many critics have called it Oscar bait and have brought up several problems with it.

A still from Emilia Pérez | Credits: Pathe

Many films each year try their best to win the coveted golden statue. While some gain the love of the voters through sheer authenticity, some try to manufacture it.

The 2025 Oscar nominations were announced on Thursday and while some vets like Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) and Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown) have been around the block before, many others heard their names called for the very first time.

Among those Oscar newbies is Best Actress contender Demi Moore (The Substance), whose career spans more than 40 years but who, as she noted in her Golden Globe acceptance speech, was dismissed as a “popcorn actress” by a producer. It’s surprising that Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) never earned an Oscar nom before now; his past roles include Oscar-winning films like L.A. Confidential (1997), The Hurt Locker (2009), and The King’s Speech (2010), but he finally got on the board in this year’s Best Supporting Actor race. Hollywood royalty Isabella Rossellini (Conclave), the daughter of Oscar nominee Roberto Rossellini and Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman, finally scored a nom of her own in Best Supporting Actress.

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” swept France’s 30th Lumiere Awards, the local equivalent to the Golden Globes, at a ceremony held on Monday in Paris at the Forum des Images auditorium.

“Emilia Pérez” dominated the show, winning a whopping five awards: best film, director, script, actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, and music for Camille and Clement Ducol. The awards were voted on by France-based journalists from 38 countries.

The Spanish-language, Mexico-set crime musical stars Gascón as notorious cartel leader Manitas del Monte, who fakes her own death to live authentically as a trans woman. The supporting cast includes Selena Gomez, who plays Manitas’ tormented wife Jessi, and Zoe Saldaña, who portrays Rita, a talented but overworked lawyer recruited by Emilia to help her start a new life. Since winning Cannes’ jury prize and an award for its female ensemble, “Emilia Pérez” has received a flood of international laurels and is now leading the U.

French writer-director Jacques Audiard has proven himself a genre-spanning talent. He’s helmed such diverse features as 1994’s thriller See How They Fall, 2009’s Academy Award-nominated gangster film A Prophet, 2012’s devastating romance Rust and Bone, and 2015’s Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or-winning portrait of refugees escaping war, Dheepan. His work is united by the fierce pursuit of his singular visions. For his latest project, Emilia Pérez, Audiard set out to combine elements of musicals, film noir, and crime dramas, and he recruited a troupe of gifted performers and artisans all committed to realizing his ambitious tale of a woman on a quest to live as her truest self. The result is a provocative fever dream, a feat of cinematic fearlessness.

Karla Sofía Gascón (Rebelde) stars in the title role of the Spanish-language film as a menacing cartel leader looking for someone to discreetly assist her in seeking gender-affirming...

Oscar voting started Jan. 8 and continues to Jan. 14 (extended two days because of the devastating California wildfires), and Academy members have 15 tunes to choose from in the race for Best Original Song. That’s how many made the cut when the shortlists were announced in December. It’s a wide-ranging list that includes country star Lainey Wilson, rock legend Elton John, musical theater favorite Lin-Manuel Miranda, and, of course, prolific movie songwriter Diane Warren. But who will make the final five? Listen to all 15 songs below and see what the songwriters had to say about their Oscar-contending compositions.

Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions “Winter Coat” from Blitz

Written by Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen, and Taura Stinson

“‘Winter Coat’ is not only meant to be a defining moment in the film but also for Rita (Saoirse Ronan),” the songwriters told Gold Derby. “It was initiated from...

At the Golden Globes on Sunday, Emilia Pérez walked away with one of the biggest prizes of the night: Best Picture, Musical or Comedy. But as Karla Sofía Gascón took the stage for a speech about self-actualization, the internet flamed the Netflix movie for what many called an inauthentic portrayal of Mexican culture and trans experience.

“When Mexicans tell you that a movie… is portraying a Mexico full of stereotypes, ignorance, lack of respect and is profiting from one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world,” wrote Mexican...

In an awards season where the race still seems to be fairly wide open, one film is gaining more traction than most as the finish line wobbles into view over the horizon.

“Emilia Perez” wasn’t talked about as an Oscar hopeful after it first bowed at the Cannes Film Festival, but eight months on and Jacques Audiard’s musical thriller about a Mexican cartel boss who undergoes gender affirmation surgery to live as a woman looks like it’s in pole position to land some major statuettes.

On Sunday, it won big at the Golden Globes, emerging ahead with four gongs, including best motion picture — musical or comedy, best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña, best motion picture — non-English language and best original song. Just two days earlier, it was the top film out of the BAFTA longlists, with 15 slots across the various categories.

The emergence of “Emilia Perez” as...

Jacques Audiard has always been unpredictable. Throughout his 30-plus year career, the Palme d’Or-winning French filmmaker has delivered the gritty prison drama “A Prophet,” chronicled destructive passion in “Rust and Bone,” told a tale of Tamil Sri Lankan refugees in “Dheepan” and explored Westerns with his English-language debut, “The Sisters Brothers.”

His latest effort is “Emilia Pérez,” a Spanish-language, Mexico-set crime musical starring Karla Sofía Gascón as notorious cartel leader Manitas del Monte, who fakes her own death to live authentically as a trans woman. The supporting cast includes Selena Gomez, who plays Manitas’ tormented wife Jessi, and Zoe Saldaña, who portrays Rita, a talented but overworked lawyer recruited by Emilia to help her start a new life.

Audiard, who is neither Mexican nor trans, acknowledges that it was a wild challenge, but “‘Emilia Pérez’ was inevitable,” he tells Variety.

Since winning Cannes’ jury prize and an award for its female ensemble,...

Exclusive: Though hardly a song-and-dance guy, French filmmaker Jacques Audiard has made the most compellingly original musical in years in Emilia Pérez, and it has become one of Netflix’s most celebrated awards-bait films in years. It got 10 Golden Globe noms, a record for the musical/comedy category; five European Film Award wins including Best Film and Best Director; 10 Critics Choice nominations; and numerous other accolades. The three actresses atop the call sheet — Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, and Zoe Saldaña — are all up for Globes, and the film is well positioned for the upcoming Oscar nominations.

The versatile Audiard found his audaciously original inspiration while thumbing through Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute, where he got the idea for a cartel boss determined to kill his past and transform into the woman he always wanted to be. Here, he explains how he did it, in a moment where Netflix has...

Refresh for latest…: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has whittled down a field of 85 eligible films to a shortlist of 15 which will now advance to the next round of voting, looking to secure a nomination for the Best International Feature Oscar.

In the mix are such expected titles as Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez from France, Walter Salles’ Brazilian drama I’m Still Here and Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which is Germany’s submission.

This marks a first for Rasoulof, who (never having represented Iran) has been living in Germany since his dramatic flight from his native country in May this year.

Also a first is the advancement of Flow — the animated fantasy adventure gives Latvia its inaugural appearance on the shortlist in this category.

Thailand also makes history today with How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. The country...

France’s “Emilia Pérez,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and Brazil’s “I’m Still Here” have been named to the shortlist in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category, retaining their frontrunner status in a race that had fewer high-profile contenders than usual this year.

Other films on the list are Canada’s “Universal Language,” the Czech Republic’s “Waves,” Denmark’s “The Girl With the Needle,” Iceland’s “Touch,” Ireland’s “Kneecap,” Italy’s “Vermiglio,” Latvia’s “Flow,” Norway’s “Armand,” Palestine’s “From Ground Zero,” Senegal’s “Dahomey,” Thailand’s “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” and the United Kingdom’s “Santosh.”

“Flow” is the only animated film on the list, while “Dahomey” is the only documentary. The Palestinian selection, “From Ground Zero,” is the most unusual of the shortlisted films, consisting of 22 separate short films made over the last year by directors living in Gaza.

Exclusive: Jacques Audiard is in the thick of awards season with his much-buzzed film Emilia Pérez, and now he is set for a retrospective from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival next month.

That Cannes Jury Prize-winning film starring Oscar hopeful Karla Sofia Gascón along with Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña will screen on January 10 at the Sbiff Riviera Theatre, followed by an in-person chat with Audiard.

The program running through January 17 at the new Sbiff Film Center also will include his films Paris, 13th District (2021), and The Sisters Brothers (2018); Dheepan (2015); Rust and Bone (2012); A Prophet (2009) and The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005).

“Audiard is a master of cinema — combining genres in order to tell his complex yet compelling stories which always draw attention to important and urgent subjects like immigration and the disenfranchised,” festival executive director Roger Durling said. “As a filmmaker, he is generous, challenging and humane, and...

In a story about transformation, the engineers of change can be many. Take “Emilia Pérez,” the award-winning musical film about a Mexican drug lord, Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, who hires a lawyer to help facilitate not just a disappearance but also gender-affirming surgery that will transform the brutish cartel leader into an elegant socialite, Emilia Pérez.

The transformation from Manitas to Emilia is the dramatic center of the film and the product of a collaboration that included Boris Razon, writer of the 2018 novel “Écoute,” on which the film is loosely based; screenwriter and director Jacques Audiard; actress Karla Sofía Gascón; and the below-the-line talent responsible for the look of both Manitas and Emilia, particularly costume designer Virginie Montel and makeup department head Julia Floch-Carbonel.

Karla Sofía Gascón (Martha Galvan for TheWrap)

“They allowed me to go deeper into the character and make it feel real,” Gascón said of Montel and Floch-Carbonel.

Emilia Pérez got an early boost in its awards campaign on Saturday night by cleaning up at the 37th European Film Awards, handed out in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language transgender musical won best film, best director and best screenplay honors for Audiard. Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the titular character, won best actress, becoming the first trans performer to win in the category.

“I didn’t prepare anything because I was sure I wasn’t going to receive anything tonight,” said Gascón, accepting her prize. She thanked Audiard, “the best European director for making the best European actress.” Gascón dedicated here prize “to my mother and to all mothers in this world because their values and their function are sometimes undervalued, [and] I would like to devote this prize to all families and ask all parents to love their children, because, unfortunately, in this world, there are families that...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez triumphed at this year’s European Film Awards, taking home five prizes including best film at tonight’s (December 7) ceremony in Lucerne.

The Mexico-set musical drama, about a feared drug lord who undergoes gender-affirming surgery, clinched the best film, director, screenwriter and actress prizes, in addition to its previously announced editing prize.

Receiving the first prize of the evening, for European director, Audiard said he had prepared no fewer than three speeches. “I was being very optimistic,” he joked. Accepting the best director award he quoted British paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott’s famous phrase:...

How does such a genre-defying film like Jacques Audiard’s transgender Mexican cartel musical Emilia Pérez come into being? In this case, it went through a uniquely adventurous development process.

The acclaimed Netflix film, which was loosely inspired by a chapter in Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute, originally began as two distinct projects, both written by Audiard and titled Emilia Pérez: an opera libretto to be performed for the stage and a gritty crime movie the director envisioned shooting on location in Mexico.

“It took a lot of time for the two projects to merge into one, to make Emilia Pérez,” says Paul Guilhaume, the French cinematographer who shot Emilia Pérez and is considered an Oscar frontrunner for his work on the film. “I didn’t even know myself which one I would be shooting — both, or was it one or the other?” Guilhaume recalls of the early days...

French-Danish actor and director Niels Arestrup, best known to international audiences for playing a Corsican crime boss in Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Grand Prix, Oscar-nominated A Prophet, has died at the age of 75.

His wife, actress and writer Isabelle Le Nouvel, announced the news, saying Arestrup had died on Sunday (December 1) following “a courageous battle against illness” at their home outside of Paris.

Arestrup won best supporting actor César awards for his 2009 A Prophet performance and for playing the petty gangster father in Audiard’s 2005 BAFTA-winning The Beat That My Heart Skipped. He earned a third César award for Bertrand Tavernier...

Niels Arestrup, the French-Danish actor and muse to Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard who appeared in international features including Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, has died. He was 75.

Arestrup’s wife, Isabelle Le Nouvel, confirmed his death to Agence France-Presse on Sunday, saying he died “at the end of a courageous fight against illness.”

Arestrup will forever be linked to Audiard and his performances in the filmmaker’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) — playing the criminal father to Romain Duris’ would-be concert pianist — and A Prophet (2009), in which he embodies a terrifying Corsican mob boss who runs his operation from within prison.

Arestrup won best supporting acting César awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscar, for both roles, and the performances solidified his image as an onscreen villain with a piercing blue gaze who is barely holding back the violence within.

Niels Arestrup, an outstanding actor noted for his imposing performances in French cinema, stage, and television, passed away in an act on Sunday at his house outside Paris. His wife, Isabelle Le Nouvel, French actress and screenwriter, confirmed his death. He was 75.

Arestrup was praised for his ability to add depth and complexity to his parts, garnering three César Awards, France’s highest film accolade. His career, spanning decades, showed his versatility as an artist, shifting smoothly between stage and television.

Arestrup’s early life was distant from show business, as he was born to a French mother from Brittany and a Danish father. He struggled in school, failed his high school examinations, and performed various jobs before discovering his love of acting. Despite these hurdles, he forged a fantastic career, becoming one of France’s most reputable entertainers.

One of Arestrup’s most memorable parts was in Jacques Audiard’s 2009 crime drama A Prophet.

French-Danish actor, director and writer Niels Arestrup, known for his Cesar-winning performances in Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet, has died at his home outside Paris at the age of 75.

Arestrup’s wife, the actress, screenwriter and author Isabelle Le Nouvel announced her husband’s death on Sunday.

The actor won a record three French Césars across his career with the final one being Bertrand Tavernier’s political satire The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay).

Arestrup was born to French mother, from Brittany, and a Danish father and grew up in humble conditions in Paris. After failing his high-school exams, he did odd jobs and then slowly moved into TV and drama.

In A Prophet, Arestrup played ruthless Corsican mobster César Luciani, who enlists the protagonist Malik (Tahar Rahim), introducing him to a life of crime in return for his protection.

Further highlights of...

Say goodbye to the old ways of doing TV business and hello to new ones.

“We need to rethink everything. The business model we used to have, that’s gone,” said Silver Reel’s Claudia Bluemhuber, a panelist at this year’s TV Beats Forum at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

“We’re going to see fewer shows. The costs have skyrocketed, we have inflation, and if you’re looking to attach a meaningful cast, there’s huge competition with streamers. At the moment, our industry is driven by fear. We need to overcome the fear of failure.”

And find new solutions. According to Meg Thomson, an executive at Globalgate Entertainment, there needs to be more cross-continental collaboration in the near future, as well as more focus on YouTube and TikTok, “where advertising is more targeted,” added James Copp, co-head of content at Night Train Media.

“The idea of...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Netflix opens “Emilia Pérez” in theaters on November 1 before the film streams November 13.

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a movie musical where the words “mammoplasty, vaginoplasty, rhinoplasty” play out in song. Nor have you lived until you’ve seen that same movie musical in which Selena Gomez says the words “My pussy still hurts when I think of you.” And you’ve never seen a movie musical at all about transness that takes as bold of swings as Jacques Audiard‘s “Emilia Pérez,” which is stylistically unforgettable while missing the crucial element that makes any movie musical work: Actually good, memorable songs.

Audiard is the 72-year-old French director known ever for dipping into other worlds and genres that are far from his own as a cis white guy from Europe. His 2015 Palme d’Or...

Jacques Audiard is one of the beloved global filmmakers working today. From Oscar-nominated “A Prophet” to Palme d’Or-winning “Dheepan,” he has earned the kind of reputation that will make cinephiles excited for any of his projects. His latest film, “Emilia Perez” (2024) is a striking addition to his filmography that explores grave real-life issues through a musical. Thanks to its dazzling set pieces and compelling acting performances, it has been making splashes since its Cannes premiere. Considered to be a frontrunner at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards, it is now streaming on Netflix. Find its gut-wrenching ending explained here.

Spoilers Ahead

Emilia Pérez (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Set in Mexico, “Emilia Pérez” is a musical drama film on Netflix that revolves around three women, who find themselves in an interconnected web of love and crime. Driven by the pursuit of their authentic selves, they take actions that upend their lives.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published during the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. “Emilia Pérez” is now in theaters and starts streaming on Netflix November 13.

French auteur Jacques Audiard has been flirting with musical moviemaking ever since “Self-Made Hero” in 1996, when he and composer Alexandre Desplat discussed adapting that film into an opera. But it wasn’t until Audiard read a friend’s novel, “Écoute,” that he responded to the idea of a Mexican drug kingpin transitioning to become a woman. In that case the cartel boss was trying to escape from his life, not his gender.

“So the novelist actually introduces this character, but then doesn’t fully develop it,” said Audiard at the Telluride Film Festival, where the Cannes prize-winner “Emilia Pérez” played well at multiple screenings and generated serious Oscar talk going into its September 9 presentation at the Toronto International Festival. “I’m fascinated by the paradox...

French model-turned-actor Marine Vacth is set to headline “Badh,” a “Taken”-style action thriller set in Morocco, from the producers of Coralie Fargeat’s hit debut “Revenge.”

The movie is directed by Canadian filmmaker Guillaume de Fontenay, who previously helmed the popular thriller “Sympathy for the Devil,” and is co-represented by Sabine Chemaly’s Federation Studios banner Ginger & Fed and WTFilms who will present it to buyers at the American Film Market this week.

Vacth stars opposite a raft of well-known French actors, Niels Schneinder (“Heartbeats”) Emmanuelle Bercot (“My King”), Slimane Dazi (“A Prophet”) and Sofian Khammes (“November”). The high-concept movie is produced by Monkey Pack Films and M.E.S Production, who previously delivered two popular thrillers, Coralie Fargeat’s “Revenge” and Frederic Jardin’s “Survive.”

Vacth stars as Alma, a young French woman with a secret past as a lethal secret service agent who has found peace...

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week: several music videos by Jacques Audiard. Jacques Audiard's newest film, Emilia Pérez will be released this week in cinemas and soon on Netflix. A darling at the Cannes Film Festival, and a probable oscar-contender, the film might seem like an odd fit for Audiard, since it's a full blown musical. But while Audiard is mostly known for his gritty humanist dramas, like Dheepan, Un Prophéte (A Prophet), De Rouille et d'Os (Rust and Bone) and De Battre Mon Coeur s'Est Arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped), there has been a droll sense of humor to his films before (The Sisters Brothers), some magical realist touches...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Here is an unusual film from a restless mind. French filmmaker Jacques Audiard’s eclectic career has already seen a gritty prison drama (A Prophet), a comedy Western (The Sisters Brothers) and a romantic drama about orcas (Rust And Bone). His latest, Emilia Pérez, is part drug-cartel gangland thriller, part trans coming-of-age drama, part grand melodrama, and part opera libretto musical. It’s nothing if not unique.

Zoe Saldaña stars as an exhausted, hard-working lawyer in Mexico City, too busy to have a life of her own. Then one day she is kidnapped on the streets by machine-gun-wielding gangsters and bustled into a van. But the kidnapping is not a death sentence or a hostage situation: instead, it’s an unlikely (and compulsory) job offer. She is to organise and oversee the transition of a fearsome cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón), who wishes to fake her own death and begin...

Following in the footsteps of Selena Gomez, who dropped her ballot off on the way to the premiere of “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place,” fellow “Emilia Perez” star Zoe Saldaña also cast her vote this week, the star shares while attending the Netflix co-hosted premiere of Jacques Audiard’s new musical at the opening night of the 28th American French Film Festival at the DGA in Hollywood on Tuesday night.

“Emilia Perez,” an exhilarating Mexico-set musical crime drama, made history after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, winning a collective prize for its ensemble cast of Saldaña, Gomez, Adriana Paz and Karla Sofía Gascón. The latter, who stars as a fearsome cartel leader who embraces her true self as a woman and embarks on a redemptive path, became the first openly trans actor to win a major award at Cannes. While “Emilia Perez” has been submitted as France’s Oscar candidate,...

The film director on the music he works to, educating himself via podcasts, and why the Paris Olympics was a pleasant surprise

Jacques Audiard was born in Paris in 1952, the son of the prolific screenwriter and director Michel Audiard. He began writing films in the mid-1970s and made his directorial debut in 1994 with See How They Fall. He won Baftas for The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) and A Prophet (2010) and the Cannes Palme d’Or with Dheepan in 2015. Audiard’s latest film, Emilia Pérez, a trans-empowerment musical set among Mexican drug cartels, won the Jury prize at Cannes and was described by Variety as “dazzling and instantly divisive”. It’s in cinemas now and will stream globally on Netflix from 13 November. Audiard lives in Paris.

The Vatican-set mystery “Conclave” opened in theaters today, but one single shot has been the talk of moviegoers all season on the film festival circuit. Late in the film, we see dozens of Catholic cardinals, all dressed in white and red, filmed from overhead and at a distance, marching forward in the rain. Their faces are obscured underneath stark white umbrellas, which bob along in the frame.

No plot spoilers here, except to say that the shot is emblematic of the high drama and arch formality in the film, which is essential to understanding the story. Based on a novel by Robert Harris (“The Ghost Writer”), the film is about a weary cardinal (Ralph Fiennes) organizing the election of a new pope. It marks the follow-up project for director Edward Berger, an Oscar-winner for 2022’s “All Quiet on the Western Front.”

And according to the cinematographer of “Conclave,” this particular...

November 2024 brings an exciting lineup of Netflix Originals and other compelling titles for subscribers to enjoy. Kicking off the month is Let Go on November 1, a heartfelt drama centered around Stella (Josephine Bornebusch), who navigates the chaos of family life after receiving a life-changing message. Following closely on November 6, Pedro Páramo adapts Juan Rulfo’s classic novel, immersing viewers in a surreal exploration of memory and legacy as Juan Preciado seeks to uncover his father’s dark past.

Action unfolds on November 8 with Bank Under Siege, a gripping tale set against the backdrop of a 1981 bank heist that tests Spain’s fledgling democracy. Fans of animated series can rejoice as Arcane Season 2 returns on November 9, continuing the critically acclaimed saga from the League of Legends universe. The month also features Emilia Pérez on November 13, a vibrant odyssey that follows four women in Mexico on their quests for happiness, directed by Jacques Audiard.

Zoe Saldaña has the incredible fortune to be involved in some of the biggest franchises in movies. She broke through in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot series, then joined the massive production of James Cameron’s Avatar and became part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in James Gunn’s off-beat space adventure films, the Guardians of the Galaxy, which crossed over with the Avengers movies. Saldaña would also get to dabble in some smaller, dramatic films in between the big studio films. This November, she can be seen in the Netflix trip, Emilia Pérez.

Saldaña recently sat down with Variety to promote her upcoming film and addressed the future of some of her biggest roles. While she’s content with passing the role of Gamora along to a newcomer, Saldaña did express a lot of interest in returning for more Star Trek in Abrams’ Kelvin Universe. Not only would...

The EnergaCamerimage International Film Festival has unveiled the first batch of movies selected for its 2024 main competition — a trio of aesthetically adventurous stories about women.

The selection includes Jacques Audiard’s Cannes jury prize winner Emilia Pérez, Magnus von Horn’s arthouse drama The Girl with the Needle, and Rachel Morrison’s boxing biopic The Fire Inside. Camerimage organizers will unveil the rest of this year’s competition selection — which usually totals around a dozen movies — in the days ahead.

As previously announced, this year’s Camerimage competition will be assessed by a panel led by jury president and two-time Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett.

Emilia Pérez and The Girl with the Needle both premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May — and both were selected by THR‘s critics as among the best films of the 2024 edition.

“Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and the divine Karla Sofia Gascón light up Audiard’s...

Watching “Babygirl” at the Venice Film Festival, I thought, “Isabelle Huppert is going to like this.” Here is a provocative movie, directed by Halina Reijn, starring Nicole Kidman as a corporate CEO engaging in kink and sexually submitting herself to a younger intern (Harris Dickinson). Kidman’s Romy cuts a powerful silhouette in the office by day, but by night, she’s on all fours being dominated in increasingly adventurous sexual encounters.

With Huppert as jury president, it was no surprise when Kidman won Best Actress, as Huppert famously stars in the darkly perverse “The Piano Teacher,” a movie Reijn’s script is surely in deep conversation with. In the 2001 Michael Haneke film, Huppert played a stoic music instructor who becomes sexually overpowered by a younger pupil. I went into “Babygirl” expecting the American version of “The Piano Teacher,” though Reijn’s film is more buoyantly sex-positive than sinisterly Freudian.

[The story contains spoilers for the new Netflix release Emilia Pérez.]

If you’re hearing about it for the first time, you may find your head spinning at the number of genres invoked by the new Netflix awards hopeful Emilia Pérez. Or, less pithily, “That Spanish-language musical that’s also a family drama that’s also a cartel thriller that’s also a study in Trans identity. From a French auteur. Co-starring Selena Gomez.”

The French auteur may have been a little daunted by the challenge himself, “How much time do we have?” said Jacques Audiard (A Prophet), when asked after the New York Film Festival premiere Monday night how he set about developing his latest picture.

The queer musical features Trans actress Karla Sofia Gascón playing a male drug kingpin in Mexico who enlists Zoe Saldaña’s lawyer Rita to help him transition to a woman named Emilia Pérez. This sets off a chain of events...

Netflix has debuted a trailer from renegade auteur Jacques Audiard’s ‘Emilia Pérez,’ an audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations.

Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self.

Written and directed by Audiard, the double Cannes-winning film also stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Edgar Ramírez.

Also in trailers – Angelina Jolie stars in teaser trailer for Pablo Larraín’s ‘Maria’

The movie hits select UK/Ie Cinemas On October 25, 2024 and On Netflix November 13, 2024.

The post Trailer drops for Jacques Audiard’s ‘Emilia Pérez’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

With the official trailer for Emilia Pérez dropping today, I'm still not entirely sure what the film is about, or how all these women fit together. I do know what French auteur Jacques Audiard is capable of, with films as diverse as The Beat My Heart Skipped, Rust and Bone, A Prophet, and The Sisters Brothers under his belt. I know that its amazing cast of women - Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez - won a rare collectice acting award at Cannes Film Festival. I know it's a musical and there are drug cartels and a transwoman finally realizing her transition and a lot of fabulous hair and costumes and some serious violence. It's definitely an unusual combination of factors, and we...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"To listen is to accept." Netflix has revealed the main official trailer for the big 2024 film Emilia Pérez, a musical about a Mexican cartel leader becoming a woman. It's the latest film from award-winning French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, and it premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year where it won Jury Prize & Best Actress prizes. We already posted the French trailer a few months ago and the US teaser as well. Talented lawyer Rita receives an unexpected offer... She has to help a feared cartel boss retire from his business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he's always dreamed of being. It's set mostly in Mexico City, following the story of Rita and Manitas – and what happens after he switches to a she. The film stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramírez, Mark Ivanir. I am a big fan of this film!

“Emilia Perez” will screen at the New York Film Festival on Monday night, ending a whirlwind festival run that started way back in the spring when the ambitious project premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. To unofficially celebrate the milestone, Netflix debuted the full final trailer for the Jacques Audiard film, one that most awards experts expect to receive several top nominations, including Best Picture.

Here’s the Netflix boilerplate for the genre-blending musical crime drama: “From renegade auteur Jacques Audiard comes ‘Emilia Pérez,’ an audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self.

Jacques Audiard’s predicted Oscar-bound “Emilia Pérez” has unveiled its full bombastic trailer.

The Cannes award-winning musical follows four women in Mexico who are each pursuing their own happiness. The official synopsis reads: “The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self.”

Selena Gomez plays Jessi, with Adriana Paz as Epifanía and Edgar Ramírez as Gustavo.

The film won the Cannes Jury Prize and the Cannes Best Actress Prize for the four lead stars of Gascón, Saldaña, Gomez, and Paz. The ensemble cast is also being feted at a slew of festivals.

The feature was also awarded the Cannes Soundtrack Award upon its world premiere, with music by Clément Ducol and Camille.

“Emilia Pérez” was selected by France as its International Feature Oscar submission,...

by Nathaniel R

Selena Gomez in "Emilia Perez"

We've already posted two reviews of Emilia Perez here at Tfe, from Elisa (pro) and Cláudio (con), and it's been a potential Oscar player since it's premiere at Cannes in May.  Today France announced that the buzzy drug cartel trans musical curiousity would represent them at the Oscars, beating out fellow finalists Misericordia, All We Imagine as Light, and The Count of Monte Cristo. This is the second time France has submitted the often thrilling auteur Jacques Audiard. His previous submission, Un Prophete, was nominated for the prize back in 2009 but surely split the 'critical consensus' vote with Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, allowing Argentina to slip between them for the win for the sleeper success The Secret in Their Eyes.  France hasn't won the Oscar in this category since 1992's Indochine. Could Emilia Perez finally spell gold again for the birthplace of cinema?...

Things are looking up for “Emilia Pérez.” France has chosen the upcoming Netflix release as its submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. Acquired by the streaming service out of Cannes, the film won both the Jury Prize and Best Actress prize for its female ensemble at the 2024 edition of the annual international film festival along the French Riviera.

The operatic crime drama about a fearsome Mexican drug cartel leader that enlists a plucky lawyer to help coordinate their gender reassignment surgery is written and directed by French auteur Jacques Audiard, whose 2009 film “A Prophet” was one of the last of France’s submissions to receive a Best International Feature nomination.

The film was chosen by revamped Oscar committee featuring 11 French professionals on both the artistic and industry side of filmmaking, including recent Oscar-nominated producers Nadim Cheikhroua (“Four Daughters”) and David Thion (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Oscar-winning filmmaker Florian Zeller,...

France has picked Jacques Audiard’s queer crime musical Emilia Pérez as its contender for the 2025 Oscar race in the best international feature category.

Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz star alongside Spanish trans actress Karla Sofia Gascón in the genre-jumping feature about a Mexican drug lord (Gascón) who enlists the help of a lawyer (Saldaña) to undergo gender-affirming surgery.

Emilia Pérez premiered in Cannes, where it won the Jury Prize as well as a joint best actress honor for the ensemble cast.

Audiard is already an Oscar nominee for A Prophet in 2009. His filmography includes such features as Rust and Bone (2012), The Sisters Brothers (2018) and Dheepan (2015).

Traditionally, France has been a regular in the best international feature race and has won the category 12 times. But the last time the nation that invented cinema took home the trophy was in 1992 with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine. France has been shut...