‘Emilia Perez’ selected as Vanguard Award recipient at Palm Springs International Film Festival
Netflix’s top awards contender “Emilia Perez” has earned another prestigious designation.
The musical crime drama will receive the Vanguard Award at this year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival.
According to a press release, The Vanguard Award is a group honor distinguishing a film’s cast and director in recognition of their collective work on an exceptional film project.”
For “Emilia Perez,” that means the honor will go to director and writer Jacques Audiard and actors Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Edgar Ramírez, all of whom are expected to be in attendance.
The Palm Springs International Film Awards will take place on January 3, 2025, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival itself running from January 2 through January 13, 2025.
“‘Emilia Pérez’ is one of the greatest achievements in cinema this year,” said Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi.
“Emilia Perez” debuted at the Cannes Film Festival where it won a special jury prize as well as shared Best Actress honors for its quartet of performers. Netflix acquired the project shortly after its Cannes bow and has ushered through the fall festival gauntlet with great success this fall. “Emilia Perez” finished as the audience award runner-up choice at the Toronto International Film Festival and played to packed audiences at the Telluride Film Festival and New York Film Festival. It is widely predicted to score several 2025 Oscar nominations next year, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress for Gascon, and Best Supporting Actress for Saldana. (Gomez is a darkhorse contender in the Best Supporting Actress category as well.) If Gascon’s nomination materializes, it will be historic: She’d become the first trans woman ever nominated for Best Actress by the Academy.
“Emilia Perez” “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.”
Netflix will debut “Emilia Perez” in limited release on November 1 before it arrives on the streaming platform beginning on November 13.