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Oscars 2025: How Did Karla Sofia Gascón's Controversy Affect Emilia Pérez’s Award Season Campaign? Explained
Emilia Pérez earned critical acclaim and awards including the jury prize at the 2024 Cannes. However, the movie is currently shrouded with controversies and poor public feedback. Deets!
This year’s award season has been bittersweet for Emilia Pérez. Despite having a solid start with multiple nominations, the musical thriller hit a snag due to recent controversies. The Jacques Audiard-helmed film has faced criticism over its central themes, such as trans representation, and Karla Sofía Gascón’s resurfaced controversial tweets have further fueled the fire.
On January 30, journalist Sarah Hagi drew attention to a series of tweets posted by Gascón on X/Twitter between 2020 and 2021. In these tweets, the trans actress made references that could be considered Islamophobic and anti-Black.
In one of them, she took a jab at the strict dress code for women in the Muslim community, mocking how they are restricted to having only a “squared hole” for visibility. Gascón also shared a passive-aggressive tweet regarding the growing popularity of the community.
In another series of tweets, she criticized George Floyd just days after he was killed by an on-duty police officer—an incident that ignited the Black Lives Matter movement. She argued that a man with “a counterfeit bill” and high on methamphetamine should not be declared a “martyr hero” due to the actions of an “idiot police officer.”
When these offensive tweets resurfaced, the actress faced severe backlash and alleged death threats on social media. She later issued an apology and gave press statements, but her attempt at damage control backfired. Gascón has since deactivated her X account.
Emilia Pérez earned impressive critical acclaim, but the mass audience did not have the same response to the movie. Moreover, it garnered mixed reviews from LGBTQ advocates.
In November, GLAAD shared commentaries from several critics who argued that the film did not authentically represent the trans community. Instead, they saw it as a “step backward” for the movement.
Other critics alleged that the movie recycled old trans stereotypes, tropes, and clichés. Gascón defended the film, stating that the trans storyline drew inspiration from her real-life experiences.
Director Audiard also received criticism for his comments on the Spanish language. The filmmaker told the French culture publication Konbini that Spanish "is a language of developing countries, a language of countries with few means, of poor people, of migrants."
Despite the controversies, Emilia Pérez has won four Golden Globes, three Critics Choice Awards, two BAFTAs, and one SAG Award, though Gascón was not part of these wins. The film is headed to the Oscars this Sunday with 13 nominations.
Gascón, who is the first-ever openly trans actress to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, will be attending the ceremony on Sunday, March 2. However, amid the controversies, the actress’s chances of winning the award have diminished.
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