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If nothing else, this year\u2019s Oscar race has given us a case study that will be taught at PR crisis management training courses for years to come. Until a couple of weeks ago, Netflix\u2019s Emilia Perez \u2013 a Spanish-language French musical film focusing on a transgender crime boss in modern Mexico \u2013 was a resounding success story. It won big at Cannes and the Golden Globes, swept the European Film Awards, and was nominated for a record-breaking 13 Oscars. The fact that the film was disliked by many trans critics, and so despised in Mexico that the country\u2019s consumer protection agency had to weigh in over the vast number of cinemagoers demanding refunds, barely seemed an impediment. And then, in late January, it all came crashing down.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s star, Karla Sof\u00eda Gasc\u00f3n, was this downfall\u2019s expert architect \u2013 over the course of days, social media was flooded with tweets she had posted within the past five years expressing racist, Islamophobic or otherwise offensive sentiments. She apologised, once, twice, and then again, in an hour-long TV interview that was reportedly organised without the involvement of Netflix or the film\u2019s team. Since then, the wheels have come off, and the car has spun into a ravine. Latest reports suggest that Netflix has distanced itself from Gasc\u00f3n, removing her from any promotional plans, redesigning the posters to spotlight her supporting co-star Zoe Saldana \u2013 whose own status as presumptive best supporting actress winner has been thrown into jeopardy \u2013 and refusing to cover any of Gasc\u00f3n\u2019s travel costs for awards season. The film\u2019s director, Jacques Audiard, meanwhile condemned Gasc\u00f3n in pretty robust terms, stating: \u201cI just don\u2019t understand why she\u2019s continuing to harm us.\u201d Leaving aside the considerable and discomfiting irony of a film that sold itself as a landmark in trans representation quite literally erasing its trans star from the narrative, I think it\u2019s clear that the protracted scandal has thrown the Oscar race wide open. But whether that\u2019s a good thing remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
Bookmakers now place The Brutalist, Brady Corbet\u2019s rich, ambitious coming-to-America epic, as the favourite to take home Best Picture. The film was already a strong contender before Emilia Perez imploded, but doubts remain over whether a film that bleak will rally enough popular support \u2013 it\u2019s fair to assume that the 215-minute runtime will deter some Oscar voters from even watching it. Last week, Variety declared that there were six (!) films with a feasible chance of winning the award, the others being Sean Baker\u2019s sex worker dramedy Anora, papal power-play thriller Conclave, garish musical crowdpleaser Wicked, and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s middle-of-the-road Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. What this suggests is that no one has any real clue where we stand. <\/p>\n
To some extent, the uncertainty is exactly what the Oscars need, after two of the most predictable awards seasons in years. In 2023, the Michelle Yeoh-fronted multiverse indie Everything Everywhere All at Once swept nearly all of the major categories, a coup that felt almost pre-ordained by the time the Oscars swung around. The following year, Christopher Nolan\u2019s Oppenheimer did the same thing. It was a worthy winner, sure, but made for a rote and unsensational night. This time around, though, the Oscars have a degree of unknowability in nearly all the major categories (save for best supporting actor \u2013 A Real Pain\u2019s Kieran Culkin may have already cleared out space for the trophy on his mantlepiece). <\/p>\n
But just because the results may be predictable doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll be right. Emilia Perez would have been the least deserving winner on artistic merits alone, but the ascendant contenders are a deeply mixed bag. The last time the Best Picture race was even remotely close to being this open was 2022, when Apple TV+\u2019s affable but utterly by-the-numbers drama Coda was announced as the winner, to almost everybody\u2019s surprise. There is a very real possibility that such a feat could happen again \u2013 if, say, A Complete Unknown were to seize a win, as some now predict. <\/p>\n
It would make sense. The Emilia Perez debacle will have altered the intentions of many Oscar voters \u2013 and not only those who planned on voting for Audiard\u2019s film. The Academy\u2019s eager embrace of Emilia Perez at the nominations stage has turned the film into a ghost at the feast, and many voters will inevitably look towards a \u201csafe\u201d and unproblematic alternative in an effort to spare further embarrassment. Some of the better alternatives have faced (far smaller) scandals of their own: The Brutalist for its use of AI in touching syllables within Adrien Brody\u2019s Hungarian dialogue; Anora for the absence of intimacy coordinators on set. A film such as A Complete Unknown \u2013 unobjectionable, unexceptional fare \u2013 could seem a very appealing means of saving face.<\/p>\n
Karla Sof\u00eda Gasc\u00f3n and Zoe Saldana in \u2018Emilia Perez\u2019 (Netflix)It\u2019s surprising, perhaps, just how long and convoluted the furore around Gasc\u00f3n has been, though her responses have undoubtedly prolonged matters. The backlash has also been unusually unanimous, absent the usual reactionary voices chiming in to defend a celebrity\u2019s right to express offensive opinions. The fact that Gasc\u00f3n is a trans woman, and Emilia Perez an ostensibly liberal endeavour, is most likely behind this. But the vehemence of the backlash doesn\u2019t excuse the wrongdoing \u2013 it just intensifies the bad vibes that have ensconced this year\u2019s awards race. Nothing is certain anymore, but here\u2019s a prediction for you: we\u2019ll all be better off when this year\u2019s Oscars are over and done with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviewsSign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our\u00a0privacy policy If nothing else, this year\u2019s Oscar race has given us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n