13 Oscar nominations later, netizens claim Emilia Pérez might just be the ‘worst movie of the century’; here’s why

The recent Academy Award nominations have sparked a wave of controversy amongst audiences, particularly around one major nominee: Emilia Pérez. This Spanish crime comedy musical, written and directed Jacques Audiard, has become the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. The film follows Rita (played Zoe Saldana), a lawyer forcibly recruited a crime boss, Manitas (played Karla Sofía Gascón). Manitas is determined to undergo gender-confirming surgery to become a woman and adopts the name Emilia Pérez. However, she struggles with the idea of severing her connection to her wife, Jessi (played Selena Gomez), and their children. While the film has manager to secure a whopping 13 Oscar nominations this year, the decision to nominate it so heavily has left many scratching their heads. Selena Gomez in Emilia Pérez Critics have not been kind to Emilia Pérez, either. Forbes’ Paul Tassi didn’t mince words saying, “Emilia Pérez is not a good movie. Not a good crime drama, not a good musical, and all accounts, not a good representation of the groups it focuses on, namely Mexicans and trans people.” The Cut also chimed in with a similar critique: “I don’t demand total realism from every film that I see. But I expect that a filmmaker so taken the concept of transitioning, one who’s displayed a certain level of conscious sensitivity in his previous efforts to depict lives unlike his own, to at least display an informed understanding of what that concept actually looks like in practice.” Unsurprisingly, this sentiment seems to resonate with a large number of netizens, who have grown increasingly vocal about their disdain for the film’s recognition in this award season. Why are netizens appalled at the nominations?Several factors have contributed to the growing backlash against Emilia Pérez, with one of the major issues being the film’s cultural authenticity — or lack thereof. In one post that’s been viewed 2.6 million times, Mexican screenwriter Héctor Guillén tagged the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, saying: “Mexico hates Emilia Pérez/ Rac Euro Centr Mockery/ Almost 500K dead and France decides to do a musical,” in reference to the Mexican drug war which has left nearly 500,000 dead (since 2006, according to recent Mexican government numbers). There’s more. According to netizens, French director Audiard lacks the linguic or cultural prowess to give the film an authentic feel. “The French director, Jacques Audiard, has admitted that he did not even make an effort to learn more about Mexican culture for his ‘Mexican’ film,” commented a netizen on X. Adding to the controversy are some past issues involving the film’s stars. Saldana’s infamous blackface allegations from her portrayal of Nina Simone in the 2016 biopic of the same name have resurfaced, while Sofía Gascón’s comparison between the backlash she faced and the Holocaust was not received well the audience. “In the past two days, news articles have started covering fabricated or exaggerated stories in attempts to smear the competition’s campaign. However, NOTHING has been posted about Zoe’s blackface or Karla’s genocide comparison?” a netizen pointed out, criticising the lack of coverage on these issues. The fact that the Academy has nominated Emilia Pérez as one of the best films of last year, despite the widespread backlash, has left many cinephiles feeling disillusioned. In a time when a film is so openly and widely hated regional audiences, it’s hard to understand how it could still receive so much buzz and recognition from the prestigious Academy. It is clear though that Emilia Pérez’s Oscar nominations may well be the most baffling — if not the most controversial — of the year.