Netflix has released the full trailer for Jaques Audiard’s Emilia Perez. It’s a strange film, light on plot but high on ideology. It is, for a certain segment of the population, “everything, everywhere all at once.” Not the movie but the concept. I would put this movie in the same category, however, as a hybrid of this crazy life we’re all living with everything coming at us online, trying to make sense of it all. It’s a mad scramble and non-traditional in its storytelling. I imagine if you liked Everything, Everywhere you’ll like Emilia Perez, and that makes it a formidable Oscar contender.
The trailer is excellent. To me, it’s better than the movie. But I am in the minority on that one. Everyone else seems to love it.
The question we have to ask is this: is the Academy finally ready to give Netflix what they have coveted for years now: Best Picture. They said no to ROMA, no to Mank, no to The Power of the Dog. Will they say yes to Emilia Perez?
I can think of a few reasons why they would. Let’s start with the most obvious. It’s an election year and this film makes history. Even if Trump wins there might be an emotional push for the film, but even if Harris wins.
The other reason is, quite simply, theatrical lost and Netflix won. It brings me no joy to say that but I’ve also lived through the fall of bookstores and record stores, laser disks and network television. Nothing lasts forever and the time has probably come for the Oscars and the Oscar race to give it up already and take their place in the comfortable arms of streaming. No ratings worries, no box office worries, no worries about appealing more broadly, no pressure to get voters to watch films on the “big screen.”
These aren’t the reasons people have been denying Netflix wins. There is an unduring stigma attached to the Netflix brand that, I think, holds them back from pulling the trigger. Apple, for instance, became the first streamer to win Best Picture even after all of those years of Netflix investing in the Academy museum, spending lavishly on parties and ads, becoming one of the major players in both politics and Hollywood — yet, the prize seemed to be just out of reach.
I once told a Netflix publicist they should lose the “N” on their Oscar ads. But they didn’t want to do that and I was stupid to think they ever would. The point of winning Oscars is to improve their brand so why would they want to eliminate it?
At any rate, can Emilia Perez go all the way? It will already be winning in International Feature but Parasite accomplished both. This is the kind of film that actors will not just love but love showing off that they love it. This could land in the CODA slot for “making history” too. It could be the “standing ovation” movie at the SAG awards. It has much going for it heading into the race.
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