Undefeated in the courtroom, Rita (Zoe Saldana), a Mexico City defence attorney, is enlisted to tend to the affairs of a notorious drug lord (Karla Sofía Gascón) who has grown contrite and is now completing gender affirmation surgery. Rechristened Emilia Pérez and determined to right a litany of past misdeeds, she relies on Rita to reintegrate her in the lives of her wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and young children. However, in Emilia’s past, there is more than one score to settle; there will be blood, ballads, and dance numbers.
Several decades into his distinguished career, Jacques Audiard (A Prophet; Rust and Bone) has delivered the most outré entry in his oeuvre with this maximalist musical that’s punctuated by gunplay and buoyed by unabashed melodrama. Gascón is absolutely mesmerising to behold as a woman striving for actualization and redemption. And everyone in the ensemble is singing from the same hymn sheet, staging a cinematic spectacle that needs to be seen and heard to be believed.
Jury Prize: Official Competition, Cannes 2024; Best Actress Award: Official Competition, Cannes 2024
Imagine a world in which Stephen Sondheim made Sicario.
David Fear, Rolling Stone
Supported by
Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramírez, Mark Ivanir
France
2024
In Spanish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Pauline Lamy
Producer
Pascal Caucheteux, Jacques Audiard, Valérie Schermann, Anthony Vaccarello, Ardavan Safaee, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Screenwriter
Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Nicolas Livecchi, Léa Mysius
Cinematography
Paul Guilhaume
Editor
Juliette Welfling
Production Design
Emmanuelle Duplay
Original Music
Clément Ducol, Camille
Jacques Audiard
Born in Paris, Jacques Audiard began his career as a screenwriter in the 1980s. His directorial debut, See How They Fall (1994), won the César for Best First Film. Audiard’s A Self-Made Hero (1996) won Best Screenplay at Cannes, while Read My Lips (2002) and The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) received multiple César Awards. A Prophet (2009) won Cannes’ Grand Prix and Dheepan (2015) won the Palme d’Or. Audiard’s American debut, The Sisters Brothers, premiered at Venice in 2018. Emilia Pérez marks Audiard’s tenth feature film.
Filmography: See How They Fall (1994); A Self-Made Hero (1996); A Prophet (2009); Rust and Bone (2012); Dheepan (2015); Paris, 13th District (2021)
Photo by Pascal Le Segretain
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
All That's Left of You
Jordan's submission for the Academy Awards, All That's Left of You makes the most of its epic format to chronicle seven decades of Palestinian history while tracking the psychological impact of cycles of exile and oppression on three generations.
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
A harried mother (Academy Award nominee Rose Byrne) clings to an unhelpful therapist (Conan O’Brien) as she struggles to cope with her daughter's mysterious illness in Mary Bronstein’s darkly comedic psychological drama.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
L'Étranger
Recreating 1940s Algeria in vivid, high contrast black and white cinematography, L'Etranger is erotic, enigmatic and brutal in equal measures, a masterful screen version of Albert Camus's insoluble classic of existential alienation.
Islands
In this sly, engrossing mystery, a dissolute English tennis coach in a Canary Islands holiday resort falls under suspicion when the husband of a beautiful guest disappears after a night of heavy drinking...