Netflix’s Best New Movie Is A Surefire Oscar Contender

This article was published on 11/14 and republished on 11/16.

Netflix has just released what has been one of the most talked-about movies of the year in film circles, part Oscar contender, part fever dream. That would be Emilia Pérez, which has just hit the streaming service, and people are in for…an experience, to say the least.

Here’s the description of the film, which is indeed a Netflix-produced movie:

“From renegade auteur Jacques Audiard comes Emilia Pérez, an audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self.”

The “renegade auteur” in question, Jacques Audiard, has directed a host film of films like Paris 13th District, Rust and Bone and A Prophet, but this may be his highest profile outing so far with big stars like Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez in tow. It also features a talented transgender lead in the form of Karla Sofía Gascón.

You may brush past the revelation that this crime-focused film is actually a musical, and as a Spanish-language film, some are saying it’s a frontrunner for the Oscar in that category. If star Karla Sofía Gascón landed a separate nomination, she would make history for the trans community.

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Emilia Pérez has been described as everything from “brilliant” to “dangerously offensive,” but on the whole it seems to be well-liked. It currently has an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes with a full 157 reviews in, and a 79% audience score despite how odd the film may come across to many. Though now that it’s hit Netflix, that’s a very large mainstream audience and we will see what the larger market makes of it. So far, so good, it seems.

The just-added film has not made an appearance on Netflix’s top 10 movie list, and we’ll see how high it gets because of its subject matter and its genre. Still, if you’re the type of person who wants to watch everything nominated for Oscars, this is definitely one you’re not going to want to skip over, it seems. I’m not sure I’ve heard more debate about an out-there film this year since The Substance, and it seems worth experiencing for yourself, that’s for sure. We’ll see if it lands nominations when those go live for the Oscars on March 2, 2025.

Update (11/16): Keeping an eye on Netflix’s top 10 movie list now that Emilia Perez has arrived, well, it’s simply not showing up there. While the list resetting at this point would allow it to appear, Emilia Perez has not made the top 10 in terms of viewership.

I cannot say I’m wholly surprised. Do you want to know what the #1 movie on Netflix is right now? Hot Frosty. A Christmas movie called Hot Frosty where a woman magically transforms a snowman into a hot guy and they have a romance. So this is the sort of competition it’s up against, and should clue you in about the public’s taste for movies at the moment. Most of the rest of the list is a bunch of kids movies, which is almost always the case. We also have a “random movie from years ago shows up and is popular” in the form of the 2015 Margot Robbie/Will Smith feature Focus, which I’m guessing most people have not heard of.

If Emilia Perez ends up with a bunch of Oscar nominations next year, that’s when we may see it show up on the list, given that Netflix will no doubt be bragging about that and featuring it prominently. Or if it does in fact with Best Foreign Language feature, where it might already be a frontrunner.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.