The 13 nominations for ‘Emilia Pérez’ are another historic triumph for Netflix. But a hugely controversial one
‘Emilia Pérez’, the film by Jacques Audiard that tells the personal journey of the head of a Mexican cartel who undergoes a gender change operation, is the production with more nominations this year for the Oscarsa total of 13. It thus surpasses other rivals that were believed to be equal or even above, such as ‘The Brutalist’ or ‘Wicked’, with 10 nominations each. However, this film produced by Netflix does not come without controversy, something that at the moment does not seem to be affecting his career. The nomination count. In its 13 nominations there are main categories such as Best Film, Best Lead Actress (Karla Sofía Gascón), Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña), Best Cinematography, Best Direction or Best Adapted Screenplay. The rest are divided between Best Editing, Best International Film, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Music and Best Sound. Significantly, despite the 13 nominations, it cannot win more than 12 awards, since in Best Original Song it opts for two songs, of which it can win a maximum of one. Another triumph for Netflix. Although it is no longer new, once again Netflix has won more nominations than any other Hollywood production company, traditional or newcomer to the industry. There are a total of 18 nominations for the platform, since those for ‘Emilia Pérez’ are joined by ‘The Only Woman in the Orchestra’ for Best Documentary Short, ‘Anuja’ for Best Live Action Short, ‘María Callas’ for Best photography, ‘Six Triple Eight’ for Best Song and ‘Wallace and Gromit: Revenge Served with Feathers’ for Best Animated Film. It is not a new situation for Netflix, which has been every year since 2020 the most nominated studiowith a high so far of 36 nominations in 2021. Controversial AI. During its time at the Cannes Festival (where it won the Jury Prize and Best Actress for its female cast), the film was unanimously acclaimed, but after three also very celebrated awards at the Golden Globesthe film hit theaters, and the controversy began. The first protests were for the use of AI: similarly to how has happened with ‘The Brutalist‘ with her dialogues in Hungarian, ‘Emilia Pérez’ has used the Respeecher program to get Karla Sofía Gascón to sing outside her vocal range, and also to touch up the Spanish accents of Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez. But that has only been the beginning. trans rejection Despite the visibility of Karla Sofía Gascón being the first openly trans actress to be nominated, as she was the first to win at Cannes, and also the first nominated at the Golden Globes, the transgender community has criticized the film for its vision. schematic and Manichaean that it presents. It has been said that the vision of transsexuality is made from a completely CIS perspective, creating a film focused on trans problems but with only a transgender interpreter. The activist and philosopher Paul B. Preciado, for example, asked “to European binary cinema to stop using our trans bodies to plant their amusement parks.” Unreal Mexico. However, the en bloc rejection occurred when the film reached Mexico, where it premiered in January and where the issue of drug cartels is especially sensitive. The country’s media have criticized her almost unanimously. The popular Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez has defined Selena Gómez’s performance as “indefensible”, being one of the most ridiculed aspects of the film on the internet. In general, the vision that is not very empathetic towards the victims, but very compassionate towards the criminal protagonist, has also been highly criticized. Header | Netflix In Xataka | Netflix breaks subscriber records, but stops reporting its numbers. The reason: it can’t grow any more
