Rita, a lawyer, is a tiny light in a big firm: overqualified but underappreciated. Drug dealers, murderers and cartel bosses owe their freedom to her intelligence. One day she is offered a way out of this dodgy life in obscurity. With her help, cartel boss Manitas del Monte aims to get out of the mafia world and transform himself into the woman he has always been deep down inside: Emilia Pérez.

“Honoured with two awards at Cannes and featuring a magnificent star cast, this epochal masterpiece is nothing less than a unique cinema revelation. (…) Jacques Audiard finally secures a place in the cinema pantheon with this formally revolutionary story about the absolute freedom of self-invention. A grandiose show full of vitality and energy that captivates all the senses, casts a spell and celebrates the power of cinema more passionately than ever before.” (distributor info)

Jacques Audiard, born in 1952, is a French film director, producer and screenwriter. He has won both the César Award for Best Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language twice, in 2005 for THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED and in 2010 for A PROPHET. His 2012 film RUST AND BONE competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival and won the BFI London Film Festival Award for Best Film. In 2015, his film DHEEPAN won the Palme d’Or in Cannes.

Filmography (selection): 2005 THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED, 2009 A PROPHET, 2012 RUST AND BONE, 2015 DHEEPAN, 2024 EMILIA PÉREZ

Awards: Jury Award and Award for Best Actress to Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz (Cannes International Film Festival, France 2024)