First trailer for Selena Gomez’s critically-acclaimed Netflix movie

Zoe Saldaña also stars.

Selena Gomez’s new movie Emilia Pérez has debuted a first trailer following its Cannes Film Festival success.

Written and directed by Jacques Audiard (Paris, 13th District), the Spanish-language musical crime dramedy follows disgruntled lawyer Rita Moro Castro who’s kidnapped to help Mexican cartel leader Juan ‘Manitas’ Del Monte undergo gender-affirming surgery.

The movie stars Karla Sofía Gascón in the titular role and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Zoe Saldaña in that of Rita, as well as Dr. Death’s Édgar Ramírez and Adriana Paz.

The first clip in Spanish sees Rita being hired to help Emilia escape the authorities and finally live as her true self.

Some time later, the lawyer and the protagonist casually meet again at a dinner party. Emilia asks for Rita’s help one more time as she intends to be reunited with her children in Mexico.

The trailer is interspersed with neon-soaked musical numbers, seeing both Saldaña and Gomez perform with the rest of the cast.

Branded “a musical for our times” by The Times, the film received largely positive reviews and earned the Jury Prize and the Best Actress award for its female ensemble at Cannes last month.

Set to hit cinemas in France on August 21, the film will be distributed by Netflix in North America and the UK, though a release date for those markets is yet to be announced.

The official synopsis for the film reads: “Emilia Pérez follows the story of Rita (Saldaña), an overqualified and undervalued lawyer at a large firm that is more interested in getting criminals off the hook than bringing them to justice.

“One day, she is given an unexpected way out, when cartel leader Manitas (Gascón) hires her to help him withdraw from his business and realise a plan he has been secretly preparing for years: to become the woman he has always dreamt of being.”