EMILIA PEREZ

 Musicals come in all shapes and sizes. This year alone we've already had "Joker: Folie a Deux" which certainly broke new ground in the way in which it incorporated its musical numbers into its dark narrative but "Joker: Folie a Deux" feels almost commonplace when set beside Jacques Audiard's extraordinary "Emilia Perez", the tale of a Mexican drug-lord's transition from male to female with the musical numbers so seamlessly woven into the narrative it often feels like an opera with swathes of dialogue sung by its large cast; it really is quite unlike anything else out there.

It's been described as 'a women's picture' in that it is dominated by its mostly female cast, with all four leading actresses taking the Best Actress prize at Cannes, namely the incredible trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon who plays both the male drug-lord Manitas and Emilia, the woman he becomes, Zoe Saldana, the lawyer who helps Emilia on her journey, Selena Gomez as Jessi, Manitas' wife and Adriana Paz as the woman who becomes Emilia's lover.

Indeed this is a work of real brilliance and imagination; if it does have a failing perhaps it lies in its score, (by Camille and Clement Ducol), which doesn't always come off and the treatment, however bold and remarkable, is unlikely to appeal to a mass audience. This is a film for the critics and the awards circuit and I'm sure the prizes will keep coming. In fact, this may even turn out to be a classic.