The musical crime thriller of the season has arrived (and it’s not ). left the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year with some shine, and now it’s generating Oscar buzz. The French film, (which is actually mostly in Spanish—with a bit of English throughout) has been widely celebrated for its cinematography and its use of music as a backdrop to courtroom and cartel drama.
The film stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, , and Adriana Paz—and all four took home a shared Best Actress award back at Cannes. follows a downtrodden lawyer in Mexico, played by Saldaña, who is contacted by a cartel kingpin seeking counsel ahead of a life-altering gender-affirming surgery. And that’s just what goes down during the first two songs.
When , Karla Sofía Gascón—who plays the eponymous Emilia Pérez—described the movie as an “action movie that’s not an action movie, a drama that’s not a drama, a comedy that’s not a comedy." Here's how you can catch it for yourself. initially premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, where it won the Jury Prize and was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or; which ultimately went to Sean Baker’s .
Good news for streamers: the film lands on Netflix on November 13. The streaming platform braved a bidding war for the film following its festival premiere, and ultimately acquired the distribution rights for upwards of $8 million. That makes Netflix's unofficial Oscar contender, joining the likes of , , , and othe.