Emilia Pérez - a Jacques Audiard film starring Selena Gomez

“Emilia Pérez,” a Spanish-language musical drama starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón, has earned the biggest standing ovation of this year’s Cannes Film Festival so far.

Gomez wiped away tears as the Palais clapped for a full nine minutes, accompanied by plenty of hooting, whistling and cheering. During the standing ovation, director Jacques Audiard waved his hat at the balcony as stars Saldaña and Édgar Ramírez shared an emotional hug. There was huge applause for Gascón, who stars in the film as a drug cartel leader who seeks gender-affirming surgery.

In the film, from Palme d’Or winner Audiard, Saldaña stars as Rita, an “overqualified and undervalued” lawyer, whose firm is more inclined to help criminals than seek justice. She finds an unexpected way out when a feared drug cartel leader Manitas (Gascón) recruits her to aid him in surreptitiously completing a sex change operation to become the woman he’s always wanted to be. Gomez plays his unsuspecting wife. In an exclusive interview with Variety, Audiard described the movie as an “opera libretto in four acts,” as the actors break out into original songs to advance the plot.

The filmmaker is a regular at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Palme d’Or in 2015 for “Deephan.” His first film, 1994’s “Watch the Men Fall,” was selected for Critics’ Week at Cannes and went on to win three César awards, including best first work. The French filmmaker has had a total of six films in official selection, including “A Prophet,” “Of Rust and Bone,” “The Olympiads” and, now “Emilia Pérez.”

It was neither Saldaña nor Gomez’s first time ascending the famed red stairs to the Grand Theatre Lumiere, but it was a major moment for Gascón, a trans actor and rising star from Madrid. (Saldaña made her Cannes debut with 2013’s “Blood Ties” from Guillaume Canet, while Gomez starred in Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die” in 2019.)

“Emilia Pérez” is among the buzziest films and packages for sale at Cannes, alongside Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump movie “The Apprentice” and the Pamela Anderson-starring “Last Showgirl.” In addition to competing for Audiard’s second Palme d’Or, the film is also eligible to win the Queer Palm, which recognizes titles dealing with LGBTQ themes and is award by a jury presided over by Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont.

“Emilia Pérez” is co-produced with French production company Why Not Productions and Page 114, together with Saint Laurent Productions, Pathé and France 2 Cinema. Pathé has acquired French distribution rights and will release the movie in French theaters.

EXCLUSIVE: After a rapturous world premiere at the Palais des Festivals on Saturday night and an 11-minute standing ovation, Jacques Audiard’s latest Cannes Competition entry Emilia Peréz is nearing a deal with Netflix for North America and the UK.

The Spanish-language musical crime comedy, starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña and Édgar Ramirez, has been one of the buzziest projects to come to market in Cannes this year, with multiple U.S. distributors offering on the film since it premiered at the weekend. Netflix has swooped in for North American and UK rights to the original title in a deal that we’re hearing is in the high seven figures. The pact is in its closing stages.

Deadline understands that a number of key international territories are all close to being done, with CDC United Network also taking rights for Latin America. Pathé pre bought the title for French speaking territories coming into the festival, making it the only presale for the finished film before its Cannes premiere.

The domestic number alone is in the high seven figures, which we understand to be a record domestic number for a foreign-language film. The streamer clearly believes in the movie and it’s conceivable it gets an awards push later this year, especially given that Netflix’s upcoming film slate lacks some of the obvious awards contenders of recent years.

Emilia Perez follows the story of Rita (Saldaña), an overqualified and undervalued lawyer at a large firm that is more interested in getting criminals off the hook than bringing them to justice. One day, she is given an unexpected way out, when cartel leader Manitas (Gascón) hires her to help him withdraw from his business and realize a plan he has been secretly preparing for years: to become the woman he has always dreamt of being.

Cannes darling Audiard, whose films Rust and Bone, Paris 13th District and Deephan have all played in Competition in Cannes (the latter winning the Palme d’Or in 2015), wrote the screenplay with frequent collaborator Thomas Bidegain and Léa Mysius.

Why Not Productions’ Pascal Caucheteux produces with Audiard and Anthony Vaccarello of Saint Laurent Productions, a film division of the luxury fashion house. Library Pictures International financed the project.

Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury in her review said: “On paper, it looks mad as a loose wheel. A largely Spanish-language musical about a Mexican druglord having a sex change, featuring a onetime Disney teen star Selena Gomez as a gangster’s wife…but here it is on the screen, a musical marvel.”

Netflix is doing the deal for Emilia Perez with CAA Media Finance and The Veterans. Pathé will release the title in France on August 28.