Los Angeles [US], March 3: French composer duo Clement Ducol and Camille won the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 2025 Academy Awards for their track El Mal from the film Emilia Pérez.
The song, featured in Audiard’s operatic drama, is a powerful three-minute moment in the film, where lawyer Rita Castro, played by Zoe Saldana, performs a fantasy sequence. In the scene, Saldana dances around a room filled with the elite, as she critiques the hypocrisy of those responsible for the deaths of thousands of Mexicans during the drug wars, according to Variety.
The award was presented by Mick Jagger, who brought humor to the stage with his remarks. “Much as I love doing it, I wasn’t the first choice to give this award out. The producer really wanted Bob Dylan. But Bob said, ‘The best songs this year were obviously in the movie A Complete Unknown,'” Jagger joked, mimicking Dylan’s iconic deadpan style. “Bob said, ‘You should find somebody younger.'”
El Mal was one of two nominations for songs from Emilia Pérez. The other, Mi Camino, a romantic ballad performed as a karaoke number by co-star Selena Gomez, was also written by Camille and Ducol.