Emilia Pérez, once believed to be a front-runner for a number of Oscars, could find itself walking away with nothing on the big night.
The film stars Karla Sofía Gascón as a Mexican cartel leader who enlists a lawyer (Zoe Saldaña) to help fake his death and undergo a gender changing surgery. After winning the Jury Prize and the female ensemble winning Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, the film was thought to be a major threat come awards season, receiving praise from notable people in the industry such as Guillermo del Toro, Denis Villeneuve and Meryl Streep.
Conversations began to change as the film started to reach wider audiences.
Criticism surrounding the portrayal of the transgender experience were thrown at the film, with GLAAD calling it a "profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman." The film, which is set in Mexico, was also criticized for its attempt at Mexican representation. Film director Jacques Audiard is French, none of the three leads (Gascón, Saldaña, and Selena Gomez) are from Mexico, and the film was shot in France. The combination of these two factors created a divide between fans and the industry when Emilia Pérez hit Netflix on November 13, 2024.
The backlash from the public created questions about how the film would perform come awards season and early on it seemed that the impact would be minimal. Emilia Pérez received 10 nominations from the Golden Globes, winning four (Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, Best Supporting Actress, Best Motion Picture - Non-English Language, and Best Original Song). In addition, it received 10 nominations from the Critics Choice Awards, 11 from BAFTA, three from SAG and a DGA nomination for Audiard. Finally, potential domination from the film was looming when it received a whopping 13 Oscar nominations, putting it in the same conversation with films like Gone with the Wind, Mary Poppins, and Forrest Gump.
What followed was one of the messiest and ugliest Oscar campaigns in recent memory.
Anger and confusion started to build after the Oscar nominations were announced, with people questioning what those in the Academy were seeing in this film. As awards season has gone on, the fire surrounding Emilia Pérez received some gasoline. In an interview in France, Audiard explained why the movie had to be in Spanish and not another language. He explained, "Spanish is a language of modest countries, of developing countries, of the poor and migrants."
Not to be outdone, Gascón added her own fuel, after past X (formerly Twitter) posts resurfaced expressing her views on topics such as Islam and Muslims, George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars. There was even one shading her co-star, Selena Gomez, in 2022 prior to filming Emilia Pérez in which she allegedly referred to Gomez as a "rich rat who plays the “poor b***** whenever she can," referring to how the Only Murders in the Building actress should leave Justin and Haley Bieber alone. However, Gascón denies writing the post, and told CNN: “I have never said anything about my colleague. I would never refer to her that way."
Gascón has since deleted her account and released multiple statements apologizing to those who may have been offended while firmly stating she is not racist.
Gascón, who is nominated for Best Actress, becoming the first openly trans actor to receive a nomination, now seems to be removed from portions of the remaining Oscar campaign. The Hollywood Reporter states that Gascón was planning to fly from her home in Spain to Los Angeles for a week of campaigning that would have included the AFI Awards luncheon, Critics Choice Awards and the PGA Awards, but she is now no longer coming. At the moment, she may still attend awards ceremonies closer to home, but with this move, her attendance at the SAG Awards and the Oscars are put into question.
In the meantime, Netflix is attempting to steer the rest of the Emilia Pérez cast clear of the mine field. Saldaña, who for the entire time has been considered the front-runner for Best Supporting Actress, responded to her co-star's posts to condemn them. "I don't have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group," she said during a Q&A in London on January 31. "I can only attest to the experience that I had with each and every individual that was a part, that is a part, of this film, and my experience and my interactions with them was incredibly about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender equity. And it just saddens me. It saddens me that we are having to face this setback right now."
The 97th Academy Awards are slated to air March 2, 2025. Despite Netflix's efforts to keep the ship afloat, we must ask the question: is the damage already done? ~Ryan Donahue