“Emilia Pérez” was a juggernaut film heading into awards season.
After winning the jury prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, as well as a historic best actress prize for stars Karla Sofía Gascon, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, it seemed the film was set for awards glory.
The film has already received four Golden Globes, three Critics Choice Awards, two BAFTAs and one SAG Award.
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However, since the film’s release, there has been criticism for how the film tackles its central themes and, in recent weeks, the film’s star, Gascón, has been at the center of a social media scandal.
Ahead of the 2025 Oscars, let’s take a look at the controversies surrounding “Emilia Pérez.”
What is ‘Emilia Pérez’ about?
The film follows the story of Gascón’s titular character, Emilia Pérez, a Mexican drug cartel leader who fakes her death with the help of a lawyer (Saldaña) and undergoes gender-affirming surgery.
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Later, Emilia attempts to right the wrongs of her past and reconnect with her former wife (Gomez) and her young children, while falling in love with someone new (Paz).
How many Oscars is the film up for this year?
“Emilia Pérez” earned 13 nominations at the 2025 Oscars, just one behind the record for most nominations by a single film.
PHOTO: Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana, Jacques Audiard and Karla Sofía Gascón attend the ‘Emilia Perez’ Photocall at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2024 in Cannes, France. (Lionel Hahn/Getty Images, FILE)
The film earned nods for best picture, best international feature film, best director, best adapted screenplay, best actress for Gascón — making her the first openly trans actor to receive an Oscar nomination — and best supporting actress for Saldaña.
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It also received nominations in the best film editing, best sound, best cinematography, best makeup and hairstyling, and best original score categories, as well as two best original song nods.
What are the film’s critics saying about it?
Despite the multiple awards and accolades that the film has received, it also has garnered mixed criticism from LGBTQ advocates about the film’s portrayal of the trans community.
In November, GLAAD compiled commentary from several of those critics, arguing that the film “recycles the trans stereotypes, tropes, and clichés of the not-so-distant past” and represented a “step backward for trans representation.”
Others have been less critical of the film, including critic Julie River, who identifies as trans and wrote in an article for Out Front Magazine, “I don’t think the film depicts trans women as liars. Rather, I think the film depicts Emilia, in particular, as a liar. I don’t think we have to extrapolate that to represent the entire trans community.”
Gascón addressed criticism of the film’s portrayal of trans people in an interview with Out in October, saying at the time, “All I could bring to the table was my own experience, which is clearly very different from a lot of people. I think as human beings, we all have different experiences, we have different lives.”
She then pointed specifically to the scene in which Emilia first tells Saldaña’s character Rita that she wants to transition.
“I thought that people would laugh, and I was very scared,” she said at the time, recalling her early conversations with director Jacques Audiard. “I talked to Jacques, and I told him, ‘This is a really important moment. This is a really important moment. It’s a really important scene for trans people. It’s a really important scene for Emilia herself,'” she added. “And I’ll never forget this. It’s just one of these things that he told me this and it really resonated with me, and he looked at me and he said, ‘Make it so that they don’t.’ And I think we did it. I think we did it.”
Audiard, meanwhile, has credited Gascón with improving the original script, telling The Hollywood Reporter in January, “She’s a powerful educator. She led me to understand that, well before transitioning, we’re already what we want to become.”
Audiard has faced criticism for other topics related to the film, including his previous comments about the Spanish language, as well as his film’s depiction of Mexican cartels and their victims.
As an example critics point to, in a video published in August, Audiard told French culture publication Konbini that Spanish “is a language of developing countries, it’s a language of countries of few means, of poor people, of migrants.”
PHOTO: Jacques Audiard and Karla Sofia Gascon attend the ‘Emilia Perez’ photocall at Hotel Only You on Nov. 28, 2024 in Madrid. (Borja B. Hojas/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE)
Addressing those comments in a subsequent interview with Deadline in February, Audiard explained that he’s “often made films in cultures that were not those of [his] native language” and that he “happen[s] to enormously love the Spanish language.”
The director said the reception to his comments was the antithesis of the point he was attempting to make, noting, “Spanish is such a rich language that crosses borders. What’s been said about my statement is actually exactly the opposite of what I think. I worked five years on this film, and for it to now be denigrated in this way, it’s really simply too much.”
Regarding the film’s depiction of cartels and the victims of the criminal organizations, Audiard said it “shocked” him that “either people haven’t seen the film properly, or they haven’t seen it at all and are acting in bad faith.”
He said the inclusion of cartels in the film was for “thematic” purposes, not to be the main focus of the film, adding, “It’s not something that I’m particularly focused on in the film. There’s one scene that deals with it. The real thing that I’m interested in, that I was interested in doing, is that I wanted to make an opera. That demands a strong stylization.”
“It seems I’m being attacked in the court of realism,” Audard continued. “I’ve never claimed that I wanted to make a realistic work. If I wanted to make a work that was particularly documented, then I would do a documentary, but then there would be no singing and dancing.”
Why is Gascón is under fire?
In late January, screenshots posted on X by writer Sarah Hagi showed tweets from Gascón spanning several years that included Islamophobic, racist and otherwise offensive comments on a variety of topics, including the 2020 death of George Floyd and the Oscars themselves.
Gascón later deleted her X account.
What has Gascón said about her social media posts?
Gascón issued an apology for her old social media posts after they went viral, saying she was “deeply sorry” for them.
‘Emilia Pérez’ actress Karla Sofía Gascón apologizes for past offensive social media posts
“As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain,” she said in a statement, obtained by Variety. “All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
PHOTO: (L-R) Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Pérez and Zoe Saldaña as Rita Moro Castro in ‘Emilia Pérez.’ (Page 114/Why Not Productions/Pathé Films/France 2 Cinéma)
Gascón continued to post about the controversy in the following days and, in a post on Feb. 4, opened up about going through an “emotional rollercoaster.”
‘Emilia Perez’ star Karla Sofía Gascón speaks out on ‘cancel culture’ after offensive tweets
Seemingly addressing her past offensive posts, Gascón said, “At some moment, I felt lost in my transition, seeking approval in the eyes of others. But today I finally know who I am. I only seek the freedom to exist without fear, to create art without barriers, and to move forward with my new life.”
“They want to subject me to ‘cancel culture,'” she continued. “I am asking Hollywood experts, and to journalists who know me and know my trajectory. How to move forward?”
Gascón has also refused to renounce her Oscar nomination despite the ongoing backlash to these past comments.
“I cannot renounce a nomination because what I have done is work and what is being valued is my acting work,” she told CNN en Espanol. “I also cannot renounce a nomination because I have not committed any crime, nor harmed anyone, nor am I racist, nor am I any of the things that all these people have tried to make others believe I am.”
“I have no reason to renounce because anyone who wants to set me aside because they think that way, I only ask them to be truthful, justly and absolutely prove that I have written something with the intent to harm or that it has a meaning because I am the way they are saying,” she continued. “Because if that is not the case, and the world we live in is going to be very difficult to recover.”
What has the film’s cast and director said about Gascón?
Following Gascon’s resurfaced comments, several of her “Emilia Pérez” cast members have addressed the controversy, as well as Audiard, who condemned Gascon’s past offensive tweets and accused her of “playing the victim” following her comments on cancel culture and more.
“She’s talking about herself as a victim, which is surprising,” Audiard said. “It’s as if she thought that words don’t hurt.”
‘Emilia Pérez’ director Jacques Audiard calls Karla Sofía Gascón’s offensive tweets ‘inexcusable’
In an interview with Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, Saldaña said the situation has brought her sadness.
PHOTO: Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón attend MoMA’s The Contenders 2024 Screening of ‘Emilia Perez’ at Museum of Modern Art on Dec. 3, 2024 in New York City. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images, FILE)
“I’m sad. Time and time again, that’s the word, because that is the sentiment that has been living in my chest since everything happened,” Saldaña said. “I’m also disappointed. I can’t speak for other people’s actions. All I can attest to is my experience, and never in a million years did I ever believe that we would be here.”
At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February, Gomez addressed the Gascón controversy, saying “some of the magic has disappeared” from the film “but I choose to continue to be proud of what I’ve done, and I’m just grateful.”
Despite their reaction to Gascón’s past social media posts, both Audiard and Saldaña shouted out the actress in their BAFTA acceptance speeches.
Audiard referred to Gascón as “my dear” when accepting the best film not in the English language trophy and Saldaña mentioned Gascón by name when praising her “wonderful cast” while accepting the best actress in a supporting role honor.
Will Karla Sofía Gascón attend the Oscars?
In the wake of the controversy, Gascón has opted out of attending the BAFTAs, Critics Choice and SAG Awards ceremonies, despite nominations at all shows.
Sources confirmed to “Good Morning America” that Gascón will attend the Oscars.
The 2025 Oscars will take place Sunday, March 2, airing live on ABC and streaming live on Hulu beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
Oscars 2025: The ‘Emilia Pérez’ controversy explained originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
