The film ‘Emilia Pérez’, directed by French director Jaques Audiard and starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, follows a Mexican cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) who fakes her death to undergo gender affirmation survey. The cross-genre musical, despite being nominated for 14 Oscars, is drowning in controversy.

Since its premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, the film seems to have received criticism from the masses. Spanish-speaking viewers online have criticized the seemingly poor Spanish in the movie. LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD has called the film "a step backward for trans representation." Mexican actors and filmmakers have critiqued its misrepresentation of Mexico and its culture, and viewers have labeled its bold musical pieces as simply not that great. However, by far, the most controversial aspect of the film is the blatantly racist and Islamaphobic posts that the lead actress, Gascón, has posted on X.

The postsresurfaced by journalist Sarah Hagi and translated from Spanish, feature sarcastic comments on Islam, women covering up as apparently “DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY” and disapproval of the apparent increase of Muslims in Spain. She has also extended her disapproval to other religions, for example, writing on August 16, 2021, “I am so sick of so much of this sht, of Islam, of Christianity, of Catholicism and of all the fcking beliefs of morons that violate human rights.” Apparently, practicing one’s religion in peace does not seem like a human right to Gascón.

Not only does she attack religion, but race, too. Days after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in the United States, Gascón posted a long thread calling Floyd a “drug addict swindler”. She also criticized the 2021 Oscars, calling it an “ugly, ugly gala”, and writing, “I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M.”

Gascón responded to the backlash she received in a statement to Variety by saying, “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well, and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life, I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”

On January 31, Gascón deleted her account on X, claiming that “I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect neither my family nor me anymore, so at their request, I am closing my account on X.” Yet, she went on to post several more statements on Instagram and commented on the issue in an interview with CNN, denying that she was racist or Islamaphobic and stating that some of these posts were fake or taken out of context. How these posts, clearly targeting people based on their race or religion, could be taken out of context is beyond me.

These offensive posts were only deleted on January 23, 2025, the same day that Gascón got nominated in the Oscars for “best lead actress”. What a crazy coincidence! Quite frankly, I do not believe her apology for a second. These posts were not from 20 years ago and just now resurfaced in time to ruin her career. The most recent of them was posted in 2021. Her apology is deeply ironic since one would expect that as a trans woman, she would perfectly understand how it feels to be constantly criticized, judged, disrespected, laughed at, and killed for such marginal reasons. Yet it seems she is all for inclusivity until it is towards anyone but herself. If Gascón had basic empathy and “knew this suffering all too well”, she wouldn’t have posted these things in the first place.

Now, regarding how her statements could affect her and her coworker's possibilities at an Academy Award, I personally believe that Emilia Pérez has a high chance of still receiving multiple wins. Award ceremonies do not seem to be phased by all the other controversy surrounding the film. The film recently won two Bafta awards, and four Golden Globes. Yet I seriously doubt that “Best Actress” will be one of the awards given at the Academy Award Ceremony. However, the Oscars have had a history of not only nominating but awarding very questionable people.

For example, Roman Polanski won the director Oscar for the film “The Pianist” and received a standing ovation in 2003, despite already pleading guilty in 1977 for raping a 13-year-old and fleeing the United States due to being considered a fugitive. It was only in 2018 that the Academy decided to expel Polanski. Cases like these make me wonder if the Oscars ever really care about the ethics of the people they are awarding or if they only take action due to the social pressure of the movements like #MeToo.

Furthermore, in 2014, Dylan Farrow, Woody Allen's adopted daughter, published an open letter in response to Allen's most recent Oscar nomination, criticizing the silence of some actors and the praise for a man who has allegedly committed numerous acts of sexual abuse against her. When an Academy spokeswoman was asked to comment on Ms. Farrow's claims, she wrote in an email, "The Academy honors achievement in film, not the personal lives of filmmakers and artists." There is a fundamental problem with this statement.

I do not mean to equate years of sexual abuse with a few offensive posts on social media. However, if the Oscars refuse to take accountability and see the issue with nominating and celebrating an alleged rapist, why would they ever rescind a nomination for a woman who posted a few tweets online? The Oscars have taken the position in the past that their purpose is merely to celebrate the art the artists create, not the artists themselves, yet they fail to see that the two will always be intertwined. It is the artist that creates and embodies their art. Gascón's portrayal of a Mexican cartel leader who transitions attempts to mirror the real-life consequences of what it means to transition. Gascón's identity is essential to the authenticity and emotion of the film. Therefore, it is utterly unacceptable for her to attack other identities and even more unacceptable for her to be celebrated despite doing so.

I decided to give the movie a chance and attempted to block out any preconceived influences from the media I had seen online. Honestly, I was a bit excited and had high expectations for the film to somehow surprise me and prove the internet wrong. Unfortunately, I felt quite disappointed by the end of it. Yet, my opinion has not changed. She neither deserves an Oscar win nor a nomination. Gascón, like her costars, does give her all into the film and one can clearly see that. My biggest problem with the film is not the acting at all. Frankly, it's the very strange stylistic choices with the editing and the musical numbers that I completely blame the director for. Whether a person sees the film as the best to exist (or the worst) and Gascón's performance to be incredible, she does not deserve to be celebrated at the Academy Awards.

All in all, if the Oscars do not award Karla Sofía Gascóns for her performance, it will not be because they suddenly gained a moral conscience. With fewer and fewer people taking the Oscars seriously every year, it will be because they cannot handle more public disapproval than they already have.