Selena Gomez 'shines' in new Oscar-tipped musical

US singer and actress Selena Gomez joined her co-stars on the red carpet at the London Film Festival on Friday, for the UK premiere of her Oscar-tipped film Emilia Pérez.

The Spanish-language musical was one of the breakout hits of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where Gomez and three of her co-stars were jointly named best actress.

The others - Zoe Saldaña, Adriana Paz, Karla Sofía Gascón - appeared alongside Gomez in London, where the film hopes to continue its momentum in the awards race.

Emilia Pérez follows a Mexican Cartel leader (played by Gascón), who asks a high-powered lawyer named Rita (Saldaña) to help him fake his own death.

But the reason he wants to retire and disappear from the world of crime isn't what you might expect - the cartel leader wants to change gender and live a new life as a woman.

The rest of the film focuses on four women, including the newly-transitioned Emilia Pérez, as they each pursue their own version of happiness in modern-day Mexico.

Pérez is portrayed by Argentinian trans actress Gascón, who has been tipped as a possible best actress contender in the forthcoming awards race.

Gomez plays the drug lord's wife, who is kept in the dark about her former lover's new identity, while Paz portrays Emilia's new romantic interest after transitioning.

All four of the film's stars walked the red carpet ahead of the film's UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the London Film Festival on Friday.

French director Jacques Audiard came up with the idea for the film after reading a chapter in Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute about a drug lord who changes identity.

Audiard went one step further for the film, and made it a story of changing gender.

"I was less interested in a change of identity to evade competitor drug barons, and more interested in the change of identity for the sake of the person she was and is,” the director told BBC News. "I was more interested in the past and what led to that transition."

The role required someone very specific – a trans actress, who was a Spanish speaker, who could also sing and dance.

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Recalling the casting process, Gascón tells BBC News: “I was contacted when I was in Mexico by a production team, and was told 'We need an actress as crazy as you - you're the only one who can do this role, but you need to learn five songs for tomorrow!'

“And I was like 'OK, let's record the whole album and we'll go on tour as soon as you want!’" she joked. “But I did say, ‘this is going to be difficult, I'm not a singer'. But the team in the film, they worked with me incredibly, they really helped me with all the songs and made it so that we could do the best work possible.”

Asked about Gascón's casting, Audiard added simply: “Without her there would be no film.”