Emilia Perez appeared to have the potential to emerge as one of this year’s major success stories at the beginning of awards season.
Following the Golden Globes, where it won a number of accolades, including best comedy or musical, the Oscar nominations were announced. With 13 nominations, it broke the record for the most nominated non-English language picture in the awards’ history.
It is shortlisted for eleven awards at this weekend’s BAFTAs, just defeated by the papal thriller Conclave, which has twelve. Additionally, transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascon has made history by being nominated for both ceremonies’ best actress award.
The narrative of a Mexican drug lord who had gender affirming surgery is told in the operatic Spanish-language musical Emilia Perez, which is set in Mexico but was primarily shot in France. It started on its path to glory in the 2025 awards season when it took home the Cannes Film Festival jury prize in May of last year.
Voters’ increasingly progressive views in previous years appeared to be mirrored in the film’s recognition, but as its popularity grew, so did the criticism.
Transgender critics who “understand how inauthentic portrayals of trans people are offensive and even dangerous” have praised Emilia Perez, calling it a “step backward for trans representation” according to the US LGBTQ+ advocacy and cultural change group GLAAD.
The movie has also drawn criticism for its clichéd portrayals of Mexico and its seeming lack of Mexican representation among the major actors and crew. Selena Gomez is American, despite her father’s Mexican ancestry, Gascon is Spanish, and US actress Zoe Saldana is of Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican heritage. Paz, Adriana, is Mexican.
Mexican screenwriter Héctor Guillén posted a mock-up poster on X in January that was viewed over 2.7 million times. It said, “Mexico hates Emilia Pérez/ Racist Euro Centrist Mockery/ Nearly 500K dead and France decides to do a musical/ No Mexicans in their cast or crew.”
Although there have long been on-screen representations of “narco” criminality in Latin America, Emilia Perez has drawn special criticism for how it handles the topic. According to government estimates, nearly 400,000 people have died in the brutal conflict between Mexican police and the drug gangs since 2006. Over 100,000 people are missing.
