Why Is ‘Emilia Perez’ Controversial? The Biggest Criticisms of the Oscar-Nominated Film

Emilia Pérez leads the pack of 2025 Oscar hopefuls with a whopping 13 nominations, but the movie has faced several different controversies.

Karla Sofía Gascón is at the center of the musical drama as a powerful Mexican mob boss who hires a lawyer (Zoe Saldaña) to help her fake her death and undergoes gender-affirming surgery. Gascón became the first openly transgender woman to score nominations for Best Actress at both the Golden Globes and Academy Awards.

Directed by French director Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez premiered in May 2024 at France’s Cannes Film Festival, where it immediately received a warm reception. Gascón, Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz were honored with Best Actress while Emilia Pérez was given the Jury Prize. However, criticism came once the movie hit Netflix the following September.

The cast and crew are aware of the controversies, and the director has encouraged people to see the film before forming opinions. “I would like to tell the people who are participating in this controversy that the film has not even been released in Mexico. They have not seen it,” Audiard told CNN en Español in a January 15 interview while discussing the backlash. “So, please, if you want to criticize the film, criticize it after having seen it. Then we will discuss it.”

Below are the biggest points of contention among Emilia Pérez critics:

Mexican Representation

Emilia Pérez is set in Mexico and tackles sensitive topics like drug trafficking, gang violence and missing persons. Critics note that someone who hasn’t lived in Mexico under such threats might not be the best person to tell such a story, and some even accused the movie of perpetuating stereotypes.

“If there are things that Mexicans find scandalous in Emilia, I apologize,” Audiard told CNN en Español.

It isn’t just the subject-matter that has sparked backlash. Gascón is from Spain, not Mexico. Paz is the only Mexico-born actor among the leads. The film is also set in Mexico — but Audiard largely filmed Emilia Pérez in France.

“I came to scout locations. At that time, I had every intention of filming the movie here,” Audiard added. “All of it, in its entirety, in natural locations. But in the end I couldn’t. I even thought that when I couldn’t do it in natural locations, I could do it at Churubusco Studios,” he said. “However, there were more financial facilities in France. But the artistic director came here to Mexico to do research. She found many elements. We even came here to Mexico [and] did rehearsals.”

Questionable Spanish

Many Spanish-speaking viewers raised their eyebrows while watching Emilia Pérez. Audiard wrote the script and French singer Camille wrote the songs, and both had to work with a translator since neither speak Spanish. The songs and dialogue have been criticized as stilted and awkward, and several social media users have noted that the English subtitles aren’t exact translations.

“Camille worked with a great translator, Karla Aviles, who’s Mexican,” the director told The New York Times in November. “But throughout the shoot we had problems, for instance, with Selena’s accent in Spanish. She is Texan. Karla Sofía Gascón speaks Castilian Spanish. She’s from Madrid. Given that I don’t speak Spanish, the nuances of the Mexican accent versus the Castilian were lost on me. We had all these problems with accents, but we fixed them in the edit. We did a lot of dubbing.”

Audiard expressed his appreciation of the language to CNN en Espanol in January, explaining, “Although I don’t speak Spanish, I think its musicality is very beautiful and I wanted to do an opera in Spanish.”

Meanwhile, Gomez, who is not fluent in Spanish, has faced backlash for her performance in the film with critics claiming they can tell she doesn’t know what she’s saying. Eugenio Derbez called her accent “indefensible,” adding, “I feel like she doesn’t know what she’s saying. If she doesn’t know what she’s saying, she can’t give her acting any nuance.”

Gomez responded directly via TikTok in December 2024. “I understand where you are coming from,” Gomez commented in Spanish. “I’m sorry. I did the best I could with the time I was given.” He later apologized for his comments.

Trans Representation

GLAAD called Emilia Pérez “a step backward for trans representation,” in one article. The film was noticeably missing from the nominations for the GLAAD Media Awards on Wednesday, January 22. The honorees are commended for meaningful representation of the LGBTQ+ community.

Many trans critics have cited various issues with the film, from the unrealistic portrayal of gender-affirming surgery to the way Emilia’s transition seems to be equated to morality.

Autostraddle slammed the movie as “unique cis nonsense” for being filled with overplayed tropes about trans people. “It’s not about offense or something being not allowed,” critic Drew Burnett Gregory wrote. “It’s that it’s boring. I don’t understand why a movie that’s so bonkers in other ways chooses to undercut its strengths with this shallow understanding of its titular character.”

Meanwhile, Pink News noted the biggest offense was that it didn’t feel at all like an honest story of transition. “The point isn’t that trans representation must be perfect, but that it has to be earnest, and Emilia Pérez does not feel earnest,” critic Amelia Hansford wrote.

Use of AI

Sound designer Cyril Holtz said an artificial intelligence company Respeecher was used to alter Gascón’s voice. For a song taking place before Emilia’s gender-affirming surgery, the director wanted Emilia’s voice to sound different. They used AI to blend the voice of Gascón and Camille, who wrote the musical numbers.

“In the case of Karla Sofía, it was more complicated because there were really parts of the field that were extremely difficult, especially because she had already made her transition and there were registers that were no longer accessible to her,” Holtz said in French during an interview about technology at Cannes.