Director Jacques Audiard (Un prophète, De rouille et d’os) crafted Emilia Pérez into a stunning musical melodrama about crime and gender. Yes, musical—there are frequent bursts of song throughout. This earned Audiard the Jury Prize for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, and Adriana Paz jointly won the award for Best Actress.
Overqualified and underappreciated, Rita works at a large law firm that counts mostly hardened criminals among its clientele. She receives a mysterious phone call from Mexican drug lord Manitas Del Monte, offering her a deal she can’t refuse. She will never have to work again if she helps him leave his empire behind. Manitas has been secretly perfecting a plan for years: to finally become the woman he has always wanted to be—Emilia Pérez.
Emilia Pérez was one of the most acclaimed films at the most recent Cannes Film Festival. Audiard surprised both fans and critics with this highly entertaining musical, which—while boasting a strong camp aesthetic comparable to the works of Pedro Almodóvar—is also thrilling and deeply moving.
