Skip to main content
Emilia Pérez film image; woman posed for audience

Emilia Pérez

VIFF Closing Gala

Special Presentations

This event has passed

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

Director
Cast

Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramírez, Mark Ivanir

Credits
Country of Origin

France

Year

2024

Language

In Spanish with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
132 min
Action & Suspense Award Winners Drama Legendary Filmmakers LGBTQIA2S+
Why Not Productions, PAGE 114, Saint Laurent Productions, Pathé, France 2 Cinéma

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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 headshot; Emilia Pérez director

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

Oscar® Shorts 2025: Live Action

104 min

This year's live action shorts include films from India, South Africa, the USA, the Netherlands, and Croatia about rhinos, robots, and testing times.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Dune: Part One

Dir. Denis Villeneuve
155 min

Adapting Frank Herbert’s legendary novel for a true big-screen experience, Denis Villeneuve confirms his status as a visionary maker of blockbusters.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Oscar® Shorts 2025: Animation

90 min

Magic candies, first kisses, and three brothers seeking hair transplants... the animated shorts package is a treasure trove of delights.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

Dune: Part Two

Dir. Denis Villeneuve
166 min

Nominated for Best Picture, and for cinematography, production design, visual effects and sound, Denis Villeneuve's second helping of Frank Herbert cosmology gives us jaw-dropping spectacle and epic storytelling.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Oscar® Shorts 2025: Documentary

164 min

Four of this year's short documentary nominees are from the USA, and three of them deal with violence: a prisoner on death row, Parkland, and a police shooting incident in Chicago, 2018. Happily the other nominees focus on classical music.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Stand

Dir. Christopher Auchter
95 min

This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema