Why ‘Emilia Pérez’ Chose to Compete With ‘A Complete Unknown’ Rather Than ‘The Substance’ In a Coveted Oscars Category
- Emilia Pérez has been winning big this awards season and the Oscars are no exception.
- The musical has been nominated in a particular category for very unique reasons.
- Musicals are not known to be easily nominated at the Oscars, so Emilia Pérez has already made history by that regard.
Emilia Pérez may have gotten off on the wrong foot with fans due to inaccurate Spanish dialogues and other issues, but it is certainly gaining favor with critics, A-list celebrities, and award ceremonies. After winning the Golden Globe award for Best Picture in the Musical or Comedy category, it has now been nominated in a revered Oscars category.
This means that the Selena Gomez-starrer crime musical is competing against Timothée Chalamet’s biographical musical drama A Complete Unknown instead of being in the same category as Demi Moore’s The Substance, which is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It is worth questioning why Emilia Pérez landed in the Adapted Screenplay category instead of the Original one.
Why is Emilia Pérez nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay?
Emilia Pérez stars three women as the lead characters. Karla Sofía Gascón stars as a notorious drug cartel leader who takes the help of the lawyer Rita (Zoe Saldaña) to fake her death and start over to live as her authentic self. In the process of doing so, Manitas (Gascón’s character before transitioning into a woman) leaves behind his wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and two kids.
The movie is directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard and the original score is composed by the collaboration of French musicians Clement Ducol and Camille. It made history at the Golden Globe Awards by becoming the second most nominated film in the awards’ history with 10 nominations. It has done something similar at the Academy Awards with 13 nominations (via the New York Times), including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The film was initially considered to have an original script, but that strategy was shifted prior to submitting for the Oscars. According to Variety, Audiard adapted the screenplay from what was originally intended as an opera libretto in four acts. Additionally, the titular character was loosely inspired by a chapter from Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute. Although the character in the novel is neither a major one nor it is named Emilia.
Regardless, it was considered best to submit it as an adapted screenplay because that made it more competitive and increased its chances of recognition. It has to be noted that musicals have a history of facing challenges in the screenplay category.
Musicals have a troubled history of winning in the screenplay category at the Academy Awards
1958’s Gigi is the only musical that has won in the adapted screenplay category while 1951’s An American in Paris and 1955’s Interrupted Melody are the only musicals to have won in the original screenplay category. While the former was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 6, the latter was nominated for 3 and won 1.
A total of 12 musicals have been nominated in the screenplay category at the Academy Awards since its inception in 1929. So, if Emilia Pérez wins in this category, it will make history as the second musical to win the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Other movies nominated in this category are A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Nickel Boys, and Sing Sing.
Regardless of whether or not the film wins in this category, it has made history by being nominated in 13 categories at the Academy Awards. Further, Gascón has become the first openly trans actress in the history of cinema to be nominated in the Best Actress category. Jacques Audiard has been nominated for his first Academy Award and Marvel alum Zoe Saldaña has also received her first Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category.
