France has picked Jacques Audiard’s queer crime musical Emilia Pérez as its contender for the 2025 Oscar race in the best international feature category.

Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz star alongside Spanish trans actress Karla Sofia Gascón in the genre-jumping feature about a Mexican drug lord (Gascón) who enlists the help of a lawyer (Saldaña) to undergo gender-affirming surgery.

Emilia Pérez premiered in Cannes, where it won the Jury Prize as well as a joint best actress honor for the ensemble cast.

Audiard is already an Oscar nominee for A Prophet in 2009. His filmography includes such features as Rust and Bone (2012), The Sisters Brothers (2018) and Dheepan (2015).

Traditionally, France has been a regular in the best international feature race and has won the category 12 times. But the last time the nation that invented cinema took home the trophy was in 1992 with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine. France has been shut out of the nominations in recent years, with last year’s contender, The Taste of Things, and 2022 selection Titane failing to make the final cut.

France’s Oscar selection committee has come under pressure to reverse the trend, particularly after they selected The Taste of Things, a foodie period romance from Tran Anh Hung over the Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner and crossover hit Anatomy of a Fall, which ended up scoring five Oscar nominations and one win, for best original screenplay.

The deadline for submissions for the 96th Oscars is Nov. 14. The shortlist for best international feature contenders will be announced Dec. 17. Nominations will be announced Jan. 17, 2025. The 2025 Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 2.