Emilia Pérez has been the villain of awards season for a while, but the reason for that has shifted dramatically in the last week.
The Netflix film, which follows a Mexican cartel leader whose plan to fake her death and transition to living as a woman is complicated by family and justice, has 13 Oscar nominations — far more than any other film. The Spanish-language musical crime dramedy from French director Jacques Audiard, which is as complex as its genre would suggest, dominated at the Golden Globes.
Online scrutiny of Gascón appeared to intensify on Jan. 29, after an online interview that the Best Actress nominee did with a Brazilian newspaper several days earlier went viral. In it, Gascón accused “people working with [fellow Best Actress nominee] Fernanda Torres” of “tearing me and Emilia Pérez down.” According to Variety, she didn’t disparage Torres herself, so it was not a violation of the academy’s rules, though some commenters suggested it might be.
On Jan. 30, just a month before the Oscars are set to air, journalist Sarah Hagi uncovered past X posts from the film’s lead actress, Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays Emilia Pérez herself. Critics called the posts racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic. Gascón posted an apology on Instagram, stating that the tweets were taken out of context and that she is “not racist.” She also seemed to imply that the controversy was part of a smear campaign against her. In an hour-long CNN interview that was reportedly not authorized by Netflix, she said she felt “crucified and stoned without a trial.”
By Jan. 31, during a Q&A in London, Emilia Pérez co-star and Best Supporting Actress frontrunner Zoe Saldaña said, “I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad. … It makes me really sad because I don’t support [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group.”
Puck’s Matthew Belloni reported that Selena Gomez didn’t attend the Clive Davis pre-Grammy party on Feb. 1 with her fiancé Benny Blanco and predicted that much of the cast of Emilia Pérez may lay low for a while.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg reported on Feb. 3 that Gascón would no longer be flying from Spain to the United States to appear at various events she was scheduled to attend, including the AFI Awards luncheon on Feb. 6 and the rescheduled Critics Choice Awards on Feb. 7. She was also supposed to attend the Producers Guild Awards on Feb. 8 as a presenter and to receive the Virtuoso Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Feb. 9.
Feinberg wrote that Netflix is no longer interested in providing transportation and accommodations for Gascón during her Oscars campaign, as they usually do with nominees.
Netflix has not responded to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.
All of this comes just before the final round of Oscars voting begins on Feb. 11. It continues until Feb. 18.
Before Gascón came under scrutiny for her posts, Emilia Pérez had already been established as the villain of awards season. It frequently happens that one film emerges as the most-hated among its peers — and it often wins Best Picture because negative sentiment alone doesn’t always sway academy voters.
To start, it was lauded by cinephiles who caught the film when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, but by the time it landed on Netflix in November, it never topped the streaming service’s movie charts. Reviews are generally favorable with a 76% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but that’s far below the average for 2025’s Best Picture nominees.
Other criticisms include the absence of Mexican actresses in the movie’s main cast, despite the film being set in Mexico; the performance of an actress who isn’t fluent in Spanish in a Spanish-speaking role and the alleged diss toward Mexican culture by the film’s French director, who apologized after critics called his portrayal of the country “inauthentic.”
In a lengthy article, GLAAD said it was “profoundly retrograde” to use the protagonist’s transgender identity as a redemption arc. Other critics in the Cut, PinkNews and Them shared similar concerns.
With major awards ceremonies on the horizon, the tide could turn for Emilia Pérez — both the film and the actress who plays the title character. As it stands, Emilia Pérez is still leading our Best Picture Leaderboard, but a lot can change in a week.
