Being in the middle of awards season, and having the Oscar’s just around the corner, many people are talking about who they think will be the biggest sweep at the academy awards. 2024 produced a long list of exceptional movies, such as The Substance (Coralie Fargeaut), Anora (Sean Baker), and The Brutalist (Brady Corbet). While all these films have been nominated for Oscar awards, one film seemed to shock people with the amount of nominations it received, which is none other than the infamous Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard). Audiences seemed to be confused and even outraged by the 13 nominations the film received, surpassing The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola). What is it about Emilia Pérez that the Oscars seemed to love but audiences didn’t?
Emilia Pérez is a movie musical that follows the story of a lawyer, Rita, trying to create a new life for a former Mexican cartel leader, Emilia, who had come out as a transgender woman. As Rita attempts to protect Emilia and her past wife and kids, Emilia’s history as a cartel leader slowly uncovers, but Rita continues to fight for Emilia’s justice. The film sparked a lot of conversation about its stereotypical and even offensive depiction of not just Mexican culture but also transgender representation. Much of the criticism of this film actually came from LGBTQ+ viewers. Ironically, considering the film is surrounded by Mexican culture, the filmmaker is not Mexican nor is he hispanic. Jacques Audiard is a French filmmaker who has been in the film industry since the 90s. On top of Audiard not being of hispanic descent, giving the film improper representation, much of the actors in the film were not Spanish speakers, which made for an awkward hour and forty minutes of non native speakers struggling through their majority Spanish lines. Student and seasoned writer Val Cortez wrote:
“As both a Mexican and transgender individual, Emlia Pérez was a grossly stereotypical and oversimplified caricature of the minority experience. It reduced the transgender identity and experience to a mere medical operation. The film managed to embody almost every anti-transgender talking point. Depicting trans women as physically threatening, violent, and deceptive individuals. The portrayal of the Mexican cartel is a surface level interpretation of a complex social issue. Actual victims of drug wars and dedicated activists do not deserve to have their story misrepresented by an uneducated French filmmaker.”
Audiard wrote, directed and produced Emilia Pérez, and while much effort was put into the film, the outcome left audiences struggling to finish the movie. With the movie having significant plot holes, poor acting, and most importantly the deafening music , movie viewers seemed to have reached a consensus, deeming Emilia Pérez as the worst film of 2024. But award season seems to think differently, and Emilia Pérez is expected to thrive at the Oscars.
While the number of nominations for this less than watchable film may seem arbitrary, considering the “Oscars So White” controversy in 2015, nominating such a film would make sense. In 2015, journalist and activist April Reign pointed out that the academy seems to only nominate white actors and actresses, with practically zero people of color nominated. This continued on for years to come, and after many celebrities had boycotted the academy, the Oscars decided to make an effort to prioritize diversity in their awards. While the Oscars still remain predominantly white, more people of color have been recognized for their acting and filmmaking, which has pleased some viewers, but the issue still remains.
Nominating Emilia Pérez as many times as the academy did may have seemed like the right move to provide more diversity and opportunity for minorities to feel represented in major films, but this is the wrong way to do this.
When people ask for representation in film, they don’t mean just slap on a mediocre movie that happens to have people of color in leading roles, they want a piece of art to be presented, and one that matters. Representation is most valuable when what is being presented is written by, directed by, and starred by those the movie wishes to depict. Minorities in the film industry are not often given the resources to make their projects, which leads to poorly constructed films like Emilia Pérez being funded. Representation in film is a relevant issue, and will continue to be one for many years to come.
Despite Emilia Perez being the mess of a film it is, perhaps the movie’s failures shine a light on what true diversity and representation would mean, and in only that sense, the movie is a success.
