The controversy surrounding Emilia Pérez and its lead actress, Karla Sofía Gascón, has been one of the shadows over this award season and will certainly loom over the Oscars on March 2.
The controversial international film Emilia Pérez led the way in nominations with a whopping 13 nods, generating surprise and shock among film fans. The film is nominated for Best Picture, Gascón is a contender for the Best Actress win, Zoe Saldaña is nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category and Jacques Audiard is up for Best Director.
But while the number of nominations shows critical acclaim, the movie has been riddled with scandal since the very beginning.
To break down why it’s been criticized by fans, let’s start from the top.
The script, which was loosely adapted from the 2018 novel Écoute by Boris Razon, was written by French director Audiard. The movie musical tells the story of an uninspired defense lawyer in Mexico City (Saldaña) who’s hired by cartel kingpin Manitas Del Monte (Gascón) who asks for her help to fake her own death and help her transition to living as a woman.
But the movie isn’t the only part of Emilia Peréz that has received backlash. In January 2025, journalist Sarah Hagi resurfaced tweets from Gascón that contained harmful opinions on Muslims, the Islamic faith, George Floyd, COVID-19 and diversity as a whole.
Find the full breakdown below.
Emilia Pérez Controversy, Explained
Karla Sofía Gascón Problematic Tweets
Uncovered by journalist Sarah Hagi, Gascón’s tweets contained a series of controversial opinions, including her negative view on Muslims, George Floyd’s murder and diversity.
In one tweet dated Nov. 22, 2020, she wrote, “I’m Sorry, Is it just my impression or is there more muslims in Spain?” she wrote, per Variety. “Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”
Following George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, Gascón aired her opinion. “I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys Without rights and consider policemen to be assassins,” she posted. “They’re all wrong.”
She also criticized the Oscars’ push for diversity. “More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M,” Gascón tweeted. “Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.”
In a tweet from August 2020, she reiterated the hateful rhetoric that the COVID-19 pandemic was made in China. “The Chinese vaccine, apart from the mandatory chip, comes with two spring rolls, a cat that moves its hand, 2 plastic flowers, a pop-up lantern, 3 telephone lines and one euro for your first controlled purchase,” she wrote.
Following her resurfaced tweets, Netflix removed Gascón from the movie’s Oscars campaign. At the time, she was set to attend the AFI Awards luncheon, the Critics Choice Awards, the Directors Guild of America Awards, the Producers Guild of America Awards and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. She was absent in all of them.
On Feb. 24, however, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Gascón will be attending the Academy Awards.
“I’m not sure how I feel, but I’m grateful to be back,” Gascón told the outlet. “I’m grateful to all those who’ve believed in me — to Netflix, the production company and my colleagues. We can close this beautiful and difficult path that began three years ago.”
The Movie’s Questionable Authenticity
From the get-go, Mexicans and Latinos alike had a problem with the movie’s production team. After all, not only are the movie’s stars not Mexican – Gascón is Spanish, Saldaña is American with Dominican roots and Selena Gomez is American with Mexican grandparents – but the director himself is French with no connection to Mexico. Plus, Audiard doesn’t speak English or Spanish, just French.
“I didn’t study [Mexico] much,” Audiard said in an interview that’s circulating online. “What I needed to know I already knew a little bit. It was more about the details and we did come a lot to Mexico to see actors, to see places and for decoration.”
In other words, not only does the creator have no connection to the country and its culture, but it doesn’t seem like he was overly worried about making his description overly accurate either.
As it turns out, the only Mexican in the cast is Adriana Paz, who played Epifania. Unfortunately, however, Paz was not selected as a Supporting Actress contender for the movie – Saldaña and Gomez were instead.
The trend continues throughout the production team. The composers and songwriters Clément Ducol and Camille, choreographer Damien Jalet, film editor Juliette Welfling, and costume designer Virginie Montel, are all French.
According to native Mexicans, the lack of intention behind the movie shows. From lines of the movie that don’t make sense, to stereotypes that seem all but surface-level about Mexican culture, Mexicans seem offended by the portrayal.
“Emilia Pérez made history as [the] winner of Best Motion Picture — Non-English Language for being the first to be written with Google Translator!” one user complained on X following their major wins at the 2025 Golden Globes. In another post, that went viral on X, Mexicans show their distaste for the Golden Globe wins. “This is a message to the Academy. Mexico hates Emilia Pérez,” it reads. “‘Eurocentrist racist mockery.’ Almost 500,000 dead, and France decides to make a musical. No Mexicans on the crew or cast”
“Emilia Pérez a film about Mexicans, directed by a French man, played by Americans, with a protagonist from Spain, with a synopsis that portrays harmful stereotypes of Mexican/Latin culture, winning best international film seems like a joke,” another tweeted.
Due to the backlash, the movie, which is available on Netflix in the US, still hasn’t been released in Mexico.
The Backlash Surrounding Selena Gomez
Gomez, who was nominated for Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes but did not score a nod at the Oscars, has been the target of criticism too. Per viewers, Gomez’s Spanish throughout the film was lacking, and her acting was hindered because of it.
“Selena is indefensible,” acclaimed Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez said in the Hablando de Cine podcast in December, per Variety. “I [watched Emilia Pérez] with people, and every time she had a scene, we looked at each other to say, ‘Wow, what is this?’”
“I feel like she doesn’t know what she’s saying,” host Gaby Meza added. “If she doesn’t know what she’s saying, she can’t give her acting any nuance.”
“Spanish is not her main language, not her secondary or fifth,” Derbez added.
At the time, Gomez responded to the comments. “I understand where you are coming from. I’m sorry I did the best I could with the time I was given,” Gomez wrote. “Doesn’t take away from how much work and heart I put into this movie.”
Derbez ended up apologizing too. “Emilia Pérez deserves to be celebrated, not diminished by my thoughtless remarks,” he wrote. “I’m walking away from this with an important lesson learned. While I understand if you cannot accept my apology, please know it comes from the heart.”
The Depiction of the Trans Experience
Another reason Emilia Pérez has found itself in hot water is their portrayal of the trans experience, including their one song about gender-affirming surgery titled “La Vaginoplastia,” aka “The Vaginoplasty.”
“Honestly, the ‘vaginoplasty’ number needed to either be toned down significantly or be Rocky Horror balls-to-the-wall outrageous, instead of languishing in some weird middle area,” Them chimed in.
But the so-called “insensitive” number isn’t the only problem depicted about the trans identity. As Pink News notes, Gascón’s character Emilia is misgendered and deadnamed many times throughout the movie. And, at one point, she sings she’s a “half he, half she.”
In another scene, Emilia’s voice lowers to how it used to be pre-transition during a fight with Jessi. “Viewers were seemingly driven towards believing Emilia was a man underneath her surgery,” the outlet asserted.
Decidedly the LGBTQ+ community is not backing the movie, further confirmed by the film’s lack of nominations for the 2025 GLAAD Awards, an award show that recognizes media for their “fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community and the issues that affect their lives.” While many other major 2024 movies were nominated – from Queer and Wicked to Mean Girls and My Old Ass – Emilia Pérez was entirely shut out.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Gáscon, instead of explaining where the movie was coming from, clapped back against the haters. “First off, I’m tired of TikTokers, Instagrammers, influencers and people who get up in the morning and are all soccer coaches, they are all journalists, they are all film critics. You must be super well-adjusted to criticize the work of 700 people from your couch, sitting there next to your PlayStation,” she told the outlet. “Second, they claim to speak for everyone. Let me tell you: Being LGBT doesn’t make you less of an idiot.”
Since its release, Mexicans, the LGBTQ+ community and audience members alike have found numerous reasons not to support the movie, which is France’s selection for Foreign Film all award season long. But while the movie and Gascón’s comments continue to spark their outrage, it seems Emilia Pérez‘s success might still carry on. Time will tell during this Sunday’s long-awaited Oscars.
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