Hollywood’s awards season heats up on Sunday at the Golden Globes, with the surreal drug-thriller musical “Emilia Perez” – about a Mexican drug lord who transitions into life as a woman – starring.

Jacques Audiard’s genre-bending film received 10 nominations, the most ever for a musical or comedy film, including for star transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascon, who plays the title character, and co-stars Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana.

“Emilia Perez” — almost entirely in Spanish — hopes to run the gauntlet in the race for the Oscars, which will take place in early March.

“The favorite here by far has to be ‘Emilia Perez,'” Deadline Awards columnist Pete Hammond told AFP.

“I think the film is international and just won the European Film Prize.”

The Golden Globes will present separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals – expanding the number of stars who will walk the red carpet and offering more to Academy voters who will soon be casting their votes for the Oscar nominations Options.

“Emilia Perez” began its march toward Hollywood stardom at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize.

Other awards for the film, which will stream on Netflix following its theatrical release, include Best Director, two entries for Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Screenplay and Best Comedy or the best music film.

They’re competing for top musical comedy with the hit “Wicked,” the Cannes favorite “Anora,” the tennis love triangle “Challengers,” Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain” and the body horror film “The Substance” starring Demi Moore awards.

“Wicked,” the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, received four nominations, including for pop sensation Ariana Grande as the bubbly, pink-clad Glinda and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo as the green-skinned Elphaba.

Hammond said he believes “Wicked” will be at a “disadvantage” at the Globes because there are no nominations in key categories, but he favors Erivo taking home the best actress award.

She will compete with Gascon, “Anora” star Mikey Madison, Amy Adams (“Nightbitch”), Moore and “Challengers” star Zendaya.

Hammond calls “The Substance” his dark horse of the season and says its message about the dangers of aging in Hollywood could resonate with voters.

– “Brutalist” vs. “Conclave” –

The Globes are in their second year of a revamp after the Los Angeles Times revealed in 2021 that the awards’ voting body – the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – had no Black members.

Now under new ownership and following the dissolution of the HFPA, organizers hope to capitalize on the ratings surge seen last January and perhaps even burnish the gala’s status as an indicator of Oscars success.

Hammond says the reorganization is shining through with nominations like “The Brutalist,” in which Oscar winner Adrien Brody plays a Hungarian-Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States.

The Globes are “definitely more international. They are more open to different types of films,” he said, citing “The Brutalist,” which received seven nominations behind “Emilia Perez,” as an example.

It will explore the papal drama “Conclave,” a fictional account of the risky horse-trading with the Holy See that shows how the death of a pope sends the church’s various factions into battle for its future. It is based on a novel by Robert Harris.

“Conclave” star Ralph Fiennes received one of the film’s six nominations.

The two favorites are vying for the best drama award with the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” the sci-fi epic “Dune: Part Two,” “Nickel Boys” and “5. September”, a look at the hostage crisis at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich from a media perspective.

“All of this is happening three days before the Oscar voting goes live,” Hammond said.

“So that could be really impactful in a difficult year where these things could go in any direction.”

The Globes also honor the best in television, with comedy “The Bear” receiving five nominations and historical epic “Shogun” and comedy “Only Murders in the Building” receiving four nominations each.

Comedian Nikki Glaser will host the gala on Sunday in Beverly Hills.

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