Category Archives: Jacques Audiard

Emilia Pérez wins top Spanish film prize amid Karla Sofía Gascón furore

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Best European film at Goya awards goes to musical at centre of storm over past social media posts written by its star

The multi-Oscar-nominated narco-musical Emilia Pérez, whose success has been overshadowed by the emergence of a series of racist and Islamophobic social media posts written by its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, won best European film at Spain’s prestigious Goya awards on Saturday night.

Gascón, the first out transgender woman to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, stayed away from the ceremony after posts came to light in which she called George Floyd “a drug addict swindler”, denigrated China, and said Islam was “becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity”.

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Emilia Pérez director criticises Karla Sofia Gascón’s ‘inexcusable’ tweets

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Oscar nominee Jacques Audiard has called the social media behaviour of the actor ‘hateful’ in a new interview

The director of Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard, has responded to the controversial unearthed tweets of his Oscar-nominated star Karla Sofía Gascón, branding them “hateful”.

The French film-maker, who is also nominated for the best director Oscar, has expressed disappointment over the social media behaviour of Gascón, who had shown bigoted views towards people of colour, Muslims and increased diversity at the Oscars.

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Film-maker Jacques Audiard apologises after Mexican outrage over Emilia Pérez

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The director of the award-winning musical about a trans cartel boss has said the film isn’t intended to be realistic, but he is sorry if things in it ‘seem shocking’

Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard has apologised after the film was engulfed in a wave of criticism over its depiction of Mexico.

A Spanish-language musical about a cartel boss who transitions to a woman, starring transgender actor Karla Sofía Gascón opposite Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez premiered in Mexico City on Wednesday before its Mexican release on 23 January.

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Pedro Almodóvar and Jacques Audiard lead European Film Awards nominations

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Emilia Peréz and The Room Next Door are both up for honours in prizes regarded as Oscars bellwethers

A genre-bending musical about a trans cartel boss and a Spanish veteran director’s English-language debut lead the nominations for this year’s European Film Awards, with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Peréz and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door both up for honours in four categories.

The French and Spanish auteurs gained nominations for best film, best director and best screenwriter, the European Film Academy announced on Tuesday ahead of this year’s ceremony in the Swiss lakeside city of Lucerne on 7 December.

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Actor Noémie Merlant: ‘Women have been taught to see ourselves through other people’s desire’

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The Portrait of a Lady on Fire star talks about her role in Jacques Audiard’s new dating drama, making a documentary about her own family, and the Hollywood actor who inspires her

The French actor Noémie Merlant is in demand these days – especially since 2019, when Céline Sciamma’s acclaimed Portrait of a Lady on Fire massively boosted her international profile. When I talk to her on Zoom, she’s rushing between two films, on her mobile in a car travelling from one shoot in Brest in northern France to another in the Pyrenees.

Despite her busy schedule, and the distraction of having just lost her bank card, Merlant is focused enough to talk with enthusiastic intensity (and no, she’s not driving the car) about Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District, which is released in the UK next month. The film is something of a departure for the 69-year-old director, who is often associated with crime dramas (A Prophet, The Beat That My Heart Skipped). It’s about young people in a multiracial Paris, and the 21st-century digital economy of passion: dating apps, instant hookups and webcam sex. And given that he’s often considered a very male film-maker, this feature notably adopts a very female perspective; it’s co-written, in fact, with Sciamma, and the writer-director Léa Mysius.

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