Ladies First
Official release poster
Directed by	Thea Sharrock
Screenplay by	Natalie Krinsky Cinco Paul Katie Silberman
Based on	Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile by Éléonore Pourriat
Produced by	Liza Chasin Eleonore Dailly Edouard de Lachomette
Starring	Sacha Baron Cohen Rosamund Pike Charles Dance Emily Mortimer Tom Davis Richard E. Grant Fiona Shaw
Cinematography	Haris Zambarloukos
Edited by	Mark Everson
Music by	Atli Örvarsson
Production company	3dot Productions
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	May 22, 2026 (2026-05-22)
Running time	93 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English

Ladies First is a 2026 American comedy film directed by Thea Sharrock. It is inspired by the 2018 French film I Am Not an Easy Man by Éléonore Pourriat. It stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Rosamund Pike, Charles Dance, Emily Mortimer, Tom Davis, Richard E. Grant, and Fiona Shaw. It was released on Netflix on May 22, 2026.

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Damien Sachs is a wealthy, chauvinistic man who works as an executive at advertising agency Atlas. At a meeting to run a campaign promoting Guinness stout to women, an executive informs him they are reluctant to work with Atlas due to its lack of women in positions of power. Damien lies, saying that they have recently promoted a female creative director, in order to secure the deal. His boss Fred is pleased with the deception, telling Damien that he is in line to become CEO of Atlas after he retires. Damien consults his assistant Ruby, searching for any woman to promote in order to make his lie credible. Ruby selects Alex Fox, a hardworking single mother who has been at Atlas for 20 years but is constantly overlooked because she is a woman. When Alex attends her first creative meeting, however, she is silenced and ignored, while the male staff, led by Damien, pitch sexist ideas for the Guinness campaign. After the meeting, Alex overhears Damien telling a colleague that she was only promoted for being a woman. A disgusted Alex quits, after Damien defends himself by saying it is more difficult to be a man than a woman in the workplace. As Damien follows her out, insulting women’s ability to function in the office, he walks into a pole, falling unconscious. When he awakens, he finds himself in a world similar to his own, with one key difference: women, not men, are considered the dominant gender, drastically affecting sociocultural norms.

When Damien returns to Atlas, he finds that the new gender dynamics had major effects: He and Alex have swapped roles, with Alex now having his old office; Ruby is now an executive; Fred is now a meek assistant, while his old assistant Felicity is CEO; and former cleaning lady Glenda is now the chair of Atlas's board. When Damien visits with his parents, sister Sunny, and her family later that day, they have also changed. That night, he is approached by the mysterious Pigeon Man (named for the pigeons that rest on his head), who tells Damien that he was sent from Damien’s world nine years prior, and that other men have arrived, later returning to the normal world. He tells Damien that to go back, he must reclaim his position of power by becoming the CEO of Atlas. Damien goes to work the next day believing he can easily rise through the ranks, but unsuccessfully flirts with Felicity, then is ignored at a creative meeting as Alex leads the women in pitching sexist concepts for Guinness wines marketed toward men, much as Damien did to her previously.

Damien consults Sunny for advice, who tells him that women will not take him seriously if they are not attracted to him. He makes drastic changes, buying new clothes, getting his body hair waxed, and going on a diet. When he arrives at work, Felicity is visibly attracted to him, and invites him to a meeting with the male CEO of Guinness, accompanied by Alex. Though Alex appears to offend the CEO with her sexist rhetoric, she soon pitches an idea that he approves of. Felicity invites Damien to a ‘meeting’ at her house that evening, where she propositions him while wearing a bathrobe; Damien reluctantly dances for her while dressed as a cowboy, only for her to suddenly die as she achieves orgasm. At her funeral, Fred tells Damien that Glenda is holding a weekend get-together to select a new CEO, presumed to be Alex. Damien goes to Glenda’s country house and manages to get inside. He impresses Glenda by playing piano and singing Ginuwine’s “Pony,” then goes out drinking with her and Alex.

Glenda holds a meeting with the Atlas staff, inviting pitches on the future of the company. Damien gives a presentation focusing on the need for change that impresses Glenda, but he is interrupted when Alex gets a call from her child Charlie, who has a chipped tooth. Damien offers to get Charlie an appointment with Sunny, who is an accomplished dentist, in order to get Alex out of the way. She agrees, but demands that Damien go with her. The two argue on the drive about who deserves the CEO position, but also begin to form a respect for each other. Despite both of them claiming to be heading home after getting Charlie to the appointment, Damien goes back to Glenda’s house, only to find that Alex has had the same idea. Their argument turns passionate, and the two sleep together. The next morning, Damien awakens to find Alex planning to quietly leave, much as he often did with the women he slept with. While talking, Alex gets a call informing her that she has been named the new Atlas CEO. A frustrated Damien complains how the world works against men; Alex immediately fires him.

Encouraged by Sunny’s husband Chris, Damien visits a lawyer, who says that Damien has a case for a wrongful dismissal suit against Alex and Atlas. While the lawsuit negatively affects Atlas’s business, Damien refuses to share that he and Alex had sex, which keeps it from moving forward. When Alex finds out, she realizes that she has feelings for Damien, and rushes to see him. However, while talking, she discovers that Damien will be receiving the CEO job instead of her. Moments later, Damien falls and hits his head, awakening back in his own world. He rushes back to Atlas a changed man, focused on giving the women at the company more opportunities and admonishing Fred for his philandering. He then visits Alex at her home, apologizing for the way he treated her, and agreeing to re-hire her with a better salary, as well as ceding his office to her. She agrees to return, and her idea for the Guinness campaign is a massive, award-winning success. Meanwhile, the Pigeon Man shares Damien’s story with Fred, who has become the latest man to be pulled into the women-first world.

Ladies First is inspired by the 2018 French film I Am Not an Easy Man (French: Je ne suis pas un homme facile), written and directed by Éléonore Pourriat. It is written by Natalie Krinsky, Katie Silberman, and Cinco Paul and directed by Thea Sharrock. It was produced by Liza Chasin of 3dot Productions, under her partnership with Netflix. Eleonore Dailly, Edouard de Lachomette and Four By Two Films also produced the film. The cast is led by Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike with Richard E. Grant, Emily Mortimer, Charles Dance, Fiona Shaw, Tom Davis and Weruche Opia in supporting roles.^[2][3]

Filming began in November 2024, taking place primarily at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England. The production was expected to run through January 2025.^[4] Filming locations also included London's Financial District and Hampstead.^[5]

Atli Örvarsson was hired to compose the score for the film.^[6]

Ladies First was released on Netflix on May 22, 2026.^[7]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 18% of 17 critics' reviews are positive.^[8] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 41 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[9]

The Guardian gave the film one star out of a possible five, describing it as "an excruciatingly unfunny high-concept thought experiment" and "a criminal waste of talent, a murderer's row of actors who hopefully got paid handsomely for the embarrassment of this whiffing up their IMDb pages", summarising the film as "unashamedly silly [...] tiresomely un-fun and, by the end, laughably earnest".^[10]

• Ladies First at IMDb