Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical Emilia Perez swept France’s Lumiere Awards on Monday evening (January 20), winning five prizes including best film.
The Oscar and Bafta hopeful was the frontrunner going into the 30th edition of the awards with six nominations, and took home prizes for nearly all of them including best director, best screenplay, best score for Camille and Clément Ducol, and best actress for Karla Sofía Gascón.
Audiard set a new record at this year’s Lumieres, winning best film for a third time after 2006’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped and 2019’s The Sisters Brothers, and best director for a fourth time.
The director, who is in South America to support the release of the film, was not present at the ceremony. He sent a video message from his hotel room to accept the best film award, echoing his Golden Globes speech: “I want Emilia Perez to be a beacon of light for those who aren’t lucky enough to counting among their friends someone as powerful and passionate as Karla Sofia Gascón, and for those who are worried today, this prize can be considered as a call to keep your heads high and to continue to fight and hope for better days ahead. As Emilia would say, bingo.”
The Lumiere recognition follows the film’s Golden Globes and European Film Awards wins and ahead of the Oscar nominations on Thursday where the film is shortlisted in six categories and nominated in 11 Bafta categories.
Thirteen prizes were awarded by international press correspondents from 38 countries at the ceremony held at the Forum des images in Paris.
Louise Courvoisier’s Holy Cow took home prizes for best first film and earned Clément Faveau the most promising actor award. Abou Sangare won best actor for his role as an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story. Ghjuvanna Benedetti won the most promising actress prize for Julien Colonna’s father-daughter Corsican mob drama The Kingdom.
Best documentary went to Mati Diop’s Dahomey, which is shortlisted for both documentary and international feature Oscars. Another Oscar hopeful, Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow, took home the award for best animated feature. Mohammad Rasoulof was in Paris to accept the award for The Seed Of The Scared Fig, named best international co-production.
Nicolas Bolduc won best cinematography for Alexandre de la Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte’s epic adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo, which has sold nearly 10 million tickets at the French box office.
Other than Berlin’s Golden Bear-winning Dahomey, all of the other prize-winning films debuted at Cannes 2024.
The list of winners follows:
Best film
Emilia Perez dir. Jacques Audiard
Best director
Jacques Audiard for Emilia Perez
Best screenplay
Jacques Audiard for Emilia Perez
Best documentary
Dahomey dir. Mati Diop
Best animated film
Flow dir. Gints Zilbalodis
Best actress
Karla Sofía Gascón for Emilia Perez
Best actor
Abou Sangare for Souleymane’s Story
Most promising actress
Ghjuvanna Benedetti for The Kingdom
Most promising actor
Clément Faveau for Holy Cow
Best first film
Holy Cow dir. Louise Courvoisier
Best international co-production
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
Best cinematography
Nicolas Bolduc for The Count Of Monte-Cristo
Best music
Camille and Clément Ducol for Emilia Perez
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