This Oscar season, all eyes are on “Emilia Pérez.”
Jacques Audiard’s critically acclaimed Spanish-language musical, recently selected as France’s official submission for the Oscars’ international feature category, is poised to dominate the awards circuit. In an exclusive revealed to Variety, Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the titular character, will be submitted for lead actress consideration. Her co-stars, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz, will vie for nominations in the supporting actress race. The four women collectively won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival after the film’s world premiere.
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“Emilia Pérez” follows Emilia (Gascón), a feared cartel leader who seeks the help of a lawyer, Rita (Saldaña), to fake her own death to finally live her life authentically as her true self.
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In a performance that resonates deeply with her personal experiences, Gascón portrays the fearsome drug lord before Emilia’s transitions, blending power and vulnerability in a portrayal that could make history. If nominated, Gascón would be the first openly trans actress to receive an Academy Award nomination.
Read: You can see all Academy Award predictions in all 23 categories on one page on the Variety Awards Circuit: Oscars.
All eyes are on Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez in the supporting actress race. Oscar history shows that it’s not uncommon for multiple women from the same film to be nominated in the supporting category—more than 33% of all lineups have included more than one actress from a single movie.
Saldaña, already a box office titan with roles in four of the highest-grossing films of all time, is an early frontrunner. Though her screen time in “Emilia Pérez” is nearly equal to Gascón’s, her placement in the supporting category follows a precedent set by past Oscar campaigns, such as the best picture winner “Chicago” (2002), where Catherine Zeta-Jones won supporting actress while Renée Zellweger competed in the lead category. Coincidentally, Zeta-Jones was also joined by her co-star, Queen Latifah, who hailed from the music industry. Does that mean good news coming for Gomez?
This approach could also favor Gomez, who earned her first Emmy acting nomination this year for “Only Murders in the Building.” Gomez delivers a standout performance as Jessi, Emilia’s estranged wife, a role that blends emotional depth with star power. Should both Gomez and Saldaña land nominations, it would mark a historic first: two Latinas nominated in the same category for the same film. To date, only two Latinas have ever won acting Oscars — Rita Moreno for “West Side Story” (1961) and Ariana DeBose for the 2022 remake of the same film, and played the same role.
Beyond the acting categories, “Emilia Pérez” is expected to be a strong contender across the board at this year’s Oscars. The film’s bold visual style and intricate storytelling make it a likely candidate for nominations in categories such as screenplay, production design, cinematography, film editing, makeup and hairstyling, sound, original score and original song (up to two)
“Emilia Pérez” has continued to have a strong presence on the festival circuit. It made its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, where Audiard received the Silver Medallion Tribute. The film then went to the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was named the runner-up for the TIFF Audience Award.
Netflix will distribute the film with a limited theatrical release on Nov. 1 before it debuts on the streaming platform on Nov. 13.
