The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made history on Thursday, January 23, when it announced that Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón had been nominated for an Oscar for her lead performance in Emilia Pérez.
Gascón, who starred in the Spanish language musical as a Mexican drug lord who begins a new life after coming out as trans, is the first openly transgender performer ever to receive an acting nomination in the Academy’s 95-year history. (Notably, Elliot Page was nominated for Best Actress in 2008 for his performance in Juno. Page came out as trans in late 2020.)
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Karla Sofía Gascón becomes the first trans woman to win award for Best Actress at Cannes
The Spanish actress dedicated the award to “all trans people who suffer so much and must keep faith that changing is possible.”
In total, Emilia Pérez received 13 nominations, including for Directing (Jacques Audiard) and Actress in a Supporting Role (Zoe Saldaña), making it the most-nominated film of the year as well as the Oscars’ most-nominated international feature ever.
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If Emilia Pérez wins Best Picture during the Oscars ceremony on March 2, it will be the first time a film distributed by Netflix has taken home the top prize. Given its recent history of platforming multiple high-profile anti-trans comedy specials from the likes of Dave Chappell and Ricky Gervais, the irony of the streamer potentially scoring its first Best Picture Oscar for a film starring and centering a transgender woman cannot be understated.
Some awards season watchers greeted Emilia Pérez’s impressive Oscars showing with bafflement. The film was rapturously recieved when it premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but has been divisive since it landed on Netflix in November. Critics have praised both Gascón and Saldaña’s performances along with the film’s bold swings, while many viewers found its over-the-top melodramatics tough to swallow. Others have criticized its depiction both of Mexico and the trans experience. The film’s use of AI to reportedly increase Gascón’s vocal range in her musical numbers has also sparked controversy.
Alongside Gascón were several other LGBTQ+ Oscar nominees. Out performer Cynthia Erivo received her second Best Actress nomination for her starring role in Wicked. Sing Sing star Coleman Domingo also picked up his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor, following a nod last year for his lead performance in Rustin. As Them notes, both performers would also make history with wins, with Erivo becoming the first out queer woman of color to win Best Actress and Domingo becoming the first out Black man to win an Academy Award for acting.
Meanwhile, out musicians Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s song “Never Too Late” (co-written with Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin) received a nomination for Best Original Song.
Among this year’s Oscar upsets: both of out director Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 films — Challengers and Queer — were completely shut out of the nominations.
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