Latest news with #Audiard
Express Tribune
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard responds to backlash over Oscars speech
Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard skips trans rights statement at Oscars, says he 'didn't have opportunity'* Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard won the Oscar for Best Original Song but chose not to address transgender rights during his time on stage. The French filmmaker, who co-wrote 'El Mal' with Clément Ducol and Camille, later explained his decision in the press room at the 2025 Oscars. 'Since I didn't win Best Film or Best Director, I didn't have the opportunity to speak,' Audiard said through an interpreter. 'But had I had that opportunity, I would have spoken up.' Despite losing Best Picture and Best Director to Sean Baker's Anora, Audiard had a platform after winning for El Mal. However, during the live broadcast, he ceded the microphone to his co-writers without addressing the audience. Emilia Pérez, which tells the story of a Mexican cartel leader (played by Karla Sofía Gascón) who undergoes gender-affirming surgery, faced backlash over its representation of both Mexican culture and the trans experience. The film was nominated for 13 Oscars, ultimately winning two—Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña and Best Original Song. The film's Oscar campaign was marred by controversy after past offensive tweets from Gascón resurfaced. The actress had made inflammatory remarks about Islam, the murder of George Floyd, and a prior Academy Awards ceremony. Oscars host Conan O'Brien even referenced the controversy in his opening monologue, joking about the record number of expletives in Anora compared to Gascón's publicist's reaction to her resurfaced tweets. Audiard later admitted he was 'very disappointed' that the backlash overshadowed his work, calling Gascón's comments 'inexcusable.'
The Guardian
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Why Emilia Pérez should win the best picture Oscar
Emilia Pérez, then. It's the film set in Mexico that angered a whole load of Mexicans. The film with a transgender lead that offended many trans criticviewers. And the film that was tipped to scoop up a bag load of Oscars – a whopping 13 nominations! – before everything came crashing down around revelations that the aforementioned lead had made some truly hideous comments on social media several years ago. From Academy darling to toxic mess nobody wants to touch with a 10-foot statuette in the space of one short Oscars campaign. And now you expect me – a white cis male who has never even been to Mexico – to tell you why Emilia Pérez should win the award for best picture? There've been easier gigs. Do I think that Emilia Pérez is the best film to come out in the last 12 months? Well, not exactly, no. But is it the wildest, bravest, silliest film? The one loaded with the most moments where you gasp 'You can't do that!' at the screen? Almost certainly. It is, after all, a musical revolving around a cartel leader who undergoes gender reassignment surgery in order to escape a violent past. There are choreographed dance moves around a chorus of 'Man to woman/From penis to vagina' and an impassioned duet between a lawyer who was enlisted to make this all happen and the transphobic Israeli surgeon who agrees to do it. And that's just the first half hour. Pretty soon, said cartel leader is living a new life as the titular Emilia, now looking after her kids as their aunt and living with former wife Jessi, all of them in the dark that this was once their murderous druglord husband and father. 'I didn't want it to be true to life,' said director Jacques Audiard in the promotional Netflix material. Ha ha, you can say that again Jacques! Culture over the past decade has been so heavily guided by sensitive discussions around who gets to tell what story, that Audiard bowling up and riding roughshod over these new norms is tin-eared but also weirdly subversive. Set in Mexico but filmed in Paris? Telling a trans story through a cis writer? Audiard is asking us to consider if authenticity is the only thing that matters in storytelling. Before the backlash there was a whole load of praise for Emilia Pérez and truly there is a lot to enjoy: in just over two hours the story encompasses film noir, telenovela, musical, melodrama and comedy (the extent of which is intentional I have no idea). It aims to tell a positive story about transitioning on the biggest of canvases. It is wildly inventive and ambitious. It is completely absurd and never, ever boring. The film reminded me of two other artistic statements in recent pop culture. Firstly, the novel Detransition, Baby, in which the author Torrey Peters also gleefully barrelled over the understandable tentativeness that has emerged around discussing trans experiences. The difference, of course, is that Peters is a trans woman with lived experience and not a 72-year-old straight white male. And yet I couldn't help but note that some of the things Emilia Pérez has been criticised for – such as depicting latent male aggression rearing up in Emilia – were also explored in Detransition, Baby. The film also brought to mind Yorgos Lanthimos's riotous Poor Things, another man's taboo-breaking take on the female experience. (And it should be noted that Emilia Pérez looks at womanhood from many angles – the frustrated lawyer Rita watching a man take all the credit for her work, the beaten and raped wife hoping that her husband has been murdered.) Defenders of Poor Things argued that we should not discount the creative input of lead actor Emma Stone. Can that argument not be extended, to some extent, to the cast of Emilia Pérez? After all, a trans woman read the script, identified with and helped make this film what it is. All of these thoughts get tossed into the hot, messy brew that is Emilia Pérez, a wild, compelling mix of the divine and the ugly. The songs (written by French singer Camille) are beautiful, the lyrics clunky. The pace electrifying, but the frantic genre-jumping jarring. The musical elements are at times ludicrously inappropriate, at others weaved into the story with impressive subtlety. The message is both heartwarming – the desire to become who you really are, the quest for redemption – and clumsy. I watched it through all the emotions – and sometimes through my fingers. Why not throw caution to the wind and let this auteur's reckless, radical statement triumph as best picture? After all, one thing is certain: there will never have been a winner quite like it.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Emilia Perez picks up non-English language Bafta as Zoe Saldana wins acting gong
Emilia Perez has picked up two Bafta awards, one of which was awarded to Zoe Saldana in the supporting actress category. An emotional Saldana, 46, who won in the same category at the Golden Globes, said the award was 'so validating' and 'a true honour'. She added: 'This was a creative challenge of a lifetime, how do you begin to even approach a film that just defies categorisation, and you start by taking the lead of (director) Jacques Audiard.' Saldana then swore after saying she was being given a countdown, and added: 'Films are supposed to change hearts and challenge minds and I hope Emilia Perez did something like this, because voices need to be heard, just not my English accent.' The Spanish language film also picked up the award for best film not in the English language, having been the second-most nominated title at this year's Bafta film awards, with 11 nominations in total. Accepting the prize, the film's French director Audiard said he was 'touched', and said the prize 'was for everyone who worked tirelessly on this film'. He also paid tribute to his fellow nominees, Ireland's Kneecap and Brazil's I'm Not There. Audiard added that 'he would like to thank the wonderful talents', and also named his 'dear Zoe', and 'Selena' (Gomez). The musical film follows four women in Mexico as they each pursue happiness, and sees fearsome cartel leader (Karla Sofia Gascon) enlist Rita (Saldana), an unappreciated lawyer, to help fake her death so she can live as her true self, Emilia. The film uses song, dance and bold visuals to tell its story, and features original songs written by French singer-songwriter Camille and composer Clement Ducol. The multi-award nominated film, which was the toast of the awards season, became mired in controversy after Gascon apologised for a number of tweets that she posted prior to the film's release. After the tweets were brought to light, the actress apologised and maintained that she had not been 'racist' in Instagram posts. Gascon, 52, who was the first transgender actress to win the Cannes Film Festival Award for best actress, was nominated for best actress but did not attend the ceremony. The film won the Jury Prize and best actress, which was shared by its four female leads, at the Cannes Film Festival. At the Golden Globes, the operatic musical was the big winner of the night with four gongs, among them best motion picture for a musical or comedy, best non-English language film, Saldana taking home best supporting actress for a motion picture, and Camille, Ducol and Audiard winning best original song. The awards also saw Gascon nominated for best actress for a motion picture musical or comedy, becoming the first trans woman to be nominated for the gong.
The Guardian
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Karla Sofía I kiss you': Emilia Pérez director extends olive branch to disgraced and absent star
Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard has thanked his lead actor, Karla Sofía Gascón, during an acceptance speech at the Baftas – following weeks of controversy surrounding her bigoted social media posts. Emilia Pérez beat out four other films in the best film not in the English language category: Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light, Walter Salles's I'm Still Here, Rich Peppiatt's Kneecap, and Mohammad Rasoulof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Thanking his cast, Audiard added at the end of his speech: 'I also thank you Karla Sofía, who I kiss.' It was a significant tribute from the French film-maker, who had previously responded to the comments of his Oscar-nominated star by branding them 'hateful'. The social media behaviour of Gascón, who had shown bigoted views towards people of colour, Muslims and increased diversity at the Oscars, plummeted Emilia Pérez into controversy in the last few weeks – and led to Netflix removing her image from their film posters. Gascón, who is the first out transgender actress to be Bafta- and Oscar-nominated for leading actress, was absent from the awards. This followed an apology that she hoped her 'silence will allow the film to be appreciated for what it is, a beautiful ode to love and difference.' 'It's very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía,' Audiard said in an interview with Deadline earlier this month. 'The trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust. 'And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected. It's as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.' When asked if he has spoken to her since, he responded at the time: 'I haven't spoken to her, and I don't want to. She is in a self-destructive approach that I can't interfere in, and I really don't understand why she's continuing.' After the tweets were discovered, Gascón initially went on the attack with multiple statements and an hour-long interview. While she has admitted to being 'deeply sorry' she also called out a 'campaign of hate and misinformation' that led to her being 'harassed'. 'She's really playing the victim,' Audiard said in response. 'She's talking about herself as a victim, which is surprising. It's as if she thought that words don't hurt.' Emilia Pérez was nominated for 11 Baftas, including best director, best film, and film not in the English language. The film was also criticised heavily in Mexico over issues of authenticity and taste, for which Audiard later apologised. In his speech on Sunday, Audiard also paid tribute to his fellow shortlisted directors. 'From Ireland, India, Iran, or Brazil, we all try to talk about the world in our own way, with our own tools and sensibilities,' he said. 'Through cinema, we weave narratives that try to push back the boundaries, to question a few conventions, even if that sometimes means breaking a few rules along the way.'
Los Angeles Times
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Jacques Audiard's strong prix game
Jacques Audiard's Spanish-language, French-made musical 'Emilia Pérez' leads all other movies in the 2025 Oscar nominations, adding to the scores of other laurels Audiard's thematically gritty, visually innovative works have collected over the years. The 'Emilia' nominations haul is the biggest ever for a non-English-language movie, and the most for a French film since … 'The Artist' in 2012. Audiard himself is vying for four Oscars for 'Emilia': directing, adapted screenplay, best picture and co-writing 'El Mal,' one of its two nominated songs. He could tie … Walt Disney's long-standing record for most (four) wins in a single year. Directing, screenplay and best picture winner Bong Joon Ho ('Parasite') appeared to tie Disney's record in 2020, but the international feature Oscar he accepted technically belongs to South Korea. It is the same reason … … the Oscar nomination for Audiard's 2009 gangster drama 'A Prophet' is credited to France, not Audiard and his fellow producers. The César Awards, Lumière Awards and Cannes Film Festival have showered Audiard's films with nominations and prizes over the years. He has won … Césars, including twice taking directing, script and picture honors in a single year — for 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped' in 2006 and 'A Prophet' in 2010. Audiard's third directing César was for his criminally underseen (in the U.S.) 2018 English-language action comedy western 'The Sisters Brothers.' Audiard also is appreciated … in England, where he has received six BAFTA nominations (including two for 'Emilia') and won two foreign-language awards ('The Beat That My Heart Skipped,' 'A Prophet') that do count producers as recipients. Audiard — or fellow nominee Coralie Fargeat ('The Substance') — could become the first French person to win a directing Oscar since 'Artist' filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius*. * Weinstein-assisted
