The unraveling of the 'Emilia Pérez' Oscar campaign: How the controversy around Karla Sofía Gascón affects the Best Picture frontrunner

Emilia Pérez has been the villain of awards season for months, but the reason for that has shifted dramatically over the last few weeks.

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 Best Actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón appeared to intensify on Jan. 29, after an online interview that she 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 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 Salda?a 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.

On Feb. 5, Emilia Pérez director and co-writer Audiard told Deadline that Gascón's posts were "absolutely hateful" and "inexcusable."

"I haven’t spoken to her, and I don’t want to. She is in a self-destructive approach that I can’t interfere in, and I really don’t understand why she’s continuing," he said. "She’s hurting the crew and all these people who worked so incredibly hard on this film. I’m thinking of myself, I’m thinking of Zoe [Salda?a] and Selena [Gomez]. I just don’t understand why she’s continuing to harm us."

The same day, Variety reported that in an interview for an episode of their Awards Circuit Podcast that hasn't been published yet, Salda?a said she's "sad" and "disappointed" with the situation.

"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," she said.

At the Santa Barbara Film Festival on Feb. 9, Gomez seemingly referenced the controversy while accepting the Virtuosos Award.

“Some of the magic has disappeared,” she said of Emilia Pérez. “But I choose to continue to be proud of what I’ve done and I’m just grateful. I live with no regrets, and I would do this movie over and over again if I could.”

Belloni published an interview on Feb. 14 with Netflix's chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, who broke the company's silence on the scandal.

“It’s really a bummer for 100 very incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,” she said, later adding that Gascón's posts raised questions about how the company would handle the personal social media accounts of people affiliated with their content.

“If you asked me today, with everything I know, we would still buy the movie,” Bajaria said.

Netflix has not responded to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.

What happened with Emilia Pérez is more than just a controversy that has affected the film’s legacy — it could ultimately stunt its chances of winning big at the Oscars, where it was previously a frontrunner. The final round of voting for academy members began on Feb. 11 and ends 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. When news first broke, the movie was leading our Best Picture Leaderboard. Now, it has fallen to fourth place.