The front-runner for this year’s Academy Awards defies easy categorization. “Emilia Pérez” is about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender transition treatment to become a woman. It’s part musical, part telenovela, part action movie – and wholly original.
The movie, streaming on Netflix, scored 13 Oscar nominations. That’s a record for an international film. Karla Sofía Gascón also scored a best actress nomination for the titular role. She’s the first openly transgender actress to receive an Oscar nod.
Why We Wrote This
With a baker’s dozen nominations, including the first for an openly transgender actress, “Emilia Pérez” has emerged as the Oscar front-runner. That cultural conservatives are not ardent fans is not a surprise – but some of the strongest criticism is coming from trans rights advocates.
Today, “Emilia Pérez” isn’t just the talk of the town. It’s a hot topic of conversation nationwide. Hollywood is staking a marker for transgender representation the very same week that President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring that trans people effectively do not exist. “Emilia Pérez” arrives with considerable prestige. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes and the Golden Globe for best picture, musical or comedy.
Even so, “Emilia Pérez” is divisive. But in this case, it’s too simplistic to pit liberal Hollywood against conservative Trumpists. Many transgender critics and advocates say it’s a backward portrayal of trans women.
The front-runner for this year’s Academy Awards defies easy categorization. “Emilia Pérez” is about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender transition treatment to become a woman. It’s part musical, part telenovela, part action movie – and wholly original.
The movie, streaming on Netflix, scored 13 Oscar nominations. That’s a record for an international film. Karla Sofía Gascón also scored a best actress nomination for the titular role. She’s the first openly transgender actress to receive an Oscar nod.
Today, “Emilia Pérez” isn’t just the talk of the town. Hollywood is staking a marker for transgender representation the very same week that President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring that trans people effectively do not exist.
Why We Wrote This
With a baker’s dozen nominations, including the first for an openly transgender actress, “Emilia Pérez” has emerged as the Oscar front-runner. That cultural conservatives are not ardent fans is not a surprise – but some of the strongest criticism is coming from trans rights advocates.
“Emilia Pérez” arrives with considerable prestige. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes and the Golden Globe for best picture, musical or comedy.
Even so, “Emilia Pérez” is divisive. But in this case, it’s too simplistic to pit liberal Hollywood against conservative Trumpists. Many trans film critics and advocates say it’s a backward, trope-ridden portrayal of trans women. Yet “Emilia Pérez” has plenty of enthusiastic supporters, too. Some say that its themes about authentic identity are more powerful for featuring a flawed trans character rather than a villain or a saint.
“What [Oscar] voters are responding to is a bold, original filmmaking style. When you sit down and watch that film, you’re going on a wild ride that is unlike any film that you have ever seen before,” says Debra Birnbaum, editor in chief of GoldDerby.com. “They’re responding to headlines in the world and they’re responding to things that matter to them and they’re responding to things that they’re passionate about.”
Reacting to the nominations, Ms. Gascón told The Hollywood Reporter it’s an honor. “What love,” said the actress, who has a child with her wife. “I feel fulfilled.”
Ms. Gascón says that her campaign for the movie will focus on overcoming bigotry. Earlier this week, she responded to President Trump’s executive order by declaring, “He is shameless.”
The order, signed Monday, stipulates that the government’s language and policy will recognize biological sex rather than gender identity. Women are biologically female, the order states, and men are biologically male. President Trump’s order railed against ideologues who have used “legal and other socially coercive means” to gain access to spaces and activities for women. The new president also banned transgender people from serving in the military. LGBTQ+ advocates view the executive order as an erasure of transgender rights. It is sure to face legal challenges.
An election, the Oscars, and backlash
In his less than favorable film review of “Emilia Pérez” in November, trans writer Caden Mark Gardner commented on the confluence of the movie and Mr. Trump’s electoral win.
“It’s not that I thought significant progress had been made or that ‘the world was ready for us,’ but witnessing a certain strain of transphobic malice that had been fomented by online far-right internet trolls being transferred to the highest office in the world, is a surreal development,” wrote Mr. Gardner, author of “Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema.” “With its storytelling stumbles and lackluster music, Emilia Perez was never going to be a film that I could embrace, but its arrival in this moment in history feels like [the] botched punchline of a cosmic joke.”
A new poll by The New York Times and Ipsos revealed that 79% of respondents, including 67% of Democrats, believe that trans women should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. A majority favor banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy for those under age 18. That includes 54% of Democrats. Asked whether society has gone too far in accommodating transgender people, 49% answered in the affirmative.
A reason for the backlash is that trans activists fueled a culture war, says Brianna Wu, a transgender woman who is a well-known podcaster and commentator, in a phone interview. Although Ms. Wu applauds “Emilia Pérez” for casting an actual trans woman as the lead, she found the movie exploitative and shallow. She fears its Oscar nominations reflect Hollywood’s desire to signal its own virtue rather than to assess works of art. And she sees other examples.
“We’ve put drag queens in front of children at libraries, not because it changes minds, but because it’s a poke in the eye to our conservative neighbors,” says Ms. Wu, co-host of the “Dollcast” podcast. The Mississippi native says that although many people she knew struggled to understand her transition, she’ll never forget how kind they were. That includes the Presbyterian minister who presided over her wedding to her husband. Republicans see transgender identity as a private issue, says Ms. Wu, who is a centrist Democrat.
What does it mean to live an authentic life?
The musical isn’t the only Oscar-nominated movie to grapple with gender and identity. “Conclave,” a drama about Catholic cardinals vying to become the next pope, does so in surprising ways. It received eight Oscar nominations. During a press tour for “Wicked,” Oscar nominees Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande touted the movie’s LGBTQ+ subtext.
“Emilia Pérez” grapples with identity by asking what it means to live as our authentic selves. How do appearances square with who we are? The movie explores that theme in a number of ways.
Zoe Saldaña, who garnered a best supporting actress for playing Emilia’s lawyer, Rita, also wrestles with who she is. In one musical sequence, Rita attends a fancy dinner for Mexico’s elite. She pirouettes and flits from table to table, pointing out the hidden hypocrisies of each attendee. But Rita betrayed her own ideals by helping arrange the drug lord’s gender transition in exchange for a lavish payout. She wants to reclaim her integrity.
Rita also wants to become a mother. Here, again, she has to reframe her sense of identity. Does motherhood require giving birth to children, or is it the expression of nurturing qualities and unconditional love?
As for Emilia, she wishes to atone for the atrocities she committed as a cartel leader. She establishes a nonprofit to help families hurt by cartels. At one point, the cartel leader explains that she’s always identified as a woman. But in order to hide that true self, she acted violently.
Writing in Out magazine, Mexican American trans cultural critic Mey Rude praised “Emilia Pérez” for its complexity and nuance. “The movie is very clear that no matter how hard Emilia pretends that her old self is dead, she’s not. She’s the same person she always was, and transitioning doesn’t change that,” Ms. Rude writes. She adds, “Emilia is not a nice person and she’s not a forgiving person. Of course that won’t change when she transitions.” As a surgeon in the movie says, “If he’s a wolf, she’ll be a wolf.”
In the Oscar stakes, “Emilia Pérez” is trailed by “The Brutalist” and “Wicked.” “The Brutalist,” whose 3 1/2 hours is broken up by an intermission – much to the relief of cinemagoers who bought supersized drinks at the concession stand – garnered 10 nominations. It’s about a Hungarian architect (best actor nominee Adrien Brody) who immigrates to America after World War II. The musical “Wicked” also netted 10 nods.
“Emilia Pérez” is also France’s entry for best international film this year. It garnered two nominations in the best original song category. Jacques Audiard was also nominated for best director.
“The fact that it’s not just one category and it’s not just [nominated for] international film, but it’s up and down the slate really speaks to the filmmaking prowess,” says Ms. Birnbaum of Gold Derby. “The voters are saying, ‘Yes, we are along this ride with you. And we very much enjoyed it.’”
