'Emilia Perez' heads into Golden Globes as strong favourite

Los Angeles, Jan. 4: Jacques Audiard's genre-defying film earned 10 nominations, the most ever for a musical or comedy film, including for star transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascon, who plays the title character, as well as co-stars Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana.

"Emilia Perez" -- which is almost entirely in Spanish -- is hoping to throw down the gauntlet in the race to the Academy Awards, which will take place in early March.

"The far and away favourite here going in has got to be 'Emilia Perez'," Deadline awards columnist Pete Hammond told AFP.

"I think it's got the international thing going for it, and it just swept the European Film Awards."

The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals -- widening the field of stars who will walk the red carpet, and also offering more options for Academy voters set to soon cast ballots for the Oscar nominations.

"Emilia Perez" started its march towards Hollywood glory at the Cannes film festival, where it won the Jury Prize.

Other nods for the film, which is streaming on Netflix after debuting in theatres, include best director, two entries for best original song, best score, best non-English language film, best screenplay, and best comedy or musical film.

It will compete for top musical-comedy honours with smash hit "Wicked," Cannes darling "Anora," tennis love-triangle film "Challengers," Jesse Eisenberg's "A Real Pain," and body horror film "The Substance" starring Demi Moore.(AFP)