FEB 6, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Cate Rosenbaum
At face value, the news that the Academy gave 13 nominations to a movie musical about a non-white transgender woman seems monumental. 20 years ago, it would’ve sounded almost unbelievable 13 Oscar nominations have been given to a movie nearly entirely in Spanish, set in Mexico, with Latina women in the lead roles.
In a world where Trump is now president, it almost feels like an act of protest — a bold stand by the Academy against the conservatism this current administration is already pushing. It feels like a liberal’s wet dream.
But that’s the issue, isn’t it? The 13 Oscar nominations of “Emilia Pérez” sound fantastic on paper. But applauding the movie or the Academy for the nominations is misguided. Trans director Camila Aurora’s “Johanne Sacreblu” short film aptly satirizes why.
If you haven’t heard the recent controversies about “Emilia Pérez,” I’ll break them down as quickly as I can. To begin, let’s be clear about what this movie is about: Mexican drug trafficker Manitas del Monte, played by Karla Sofia Gascón, leaves her life of crime by transitioning to a woman with the help of a lawyer, actor Zoe Saldaña, and becomes an activist searching for Mexico’s thousands of disappeared, all while attempting to still connect with her children, fighting with her ex-wife, portrayed by Selena Gomez and falling in love.
“Emilia Pérez” is undeniably a Mexican film attempting to tell a story about the deep pain and societal trauma Mexico faces with drug cartels. However, here arises controversy: French director Jacques Audiard admitted that he felt he knew enough about Mexico to make his film and didn’t do much research on the country and culture beforehand.
This past week, racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic old tweets from lead actor Gascón were uncovered. Gascón apologized on Instagram, stating that the tweets were taken out of context, but also seemed to imply that the controversy was part of a smear campaign against her. Responding to the hate “Emilia Pérez” has received online, Gascón asked her followers to “[b]e careful not to continue to ignore hate speech, that’s how it started in Germany and how we ended up in concentration camps.” Many found her reference to the Holocaust to be out of touch, especially in relation to film critique. Gascón is nominated for Best Actress for the 2025 Oscars.
But even outside of that, the heart of the issue is that “Emilia Pérez” remains deeply offensive. Mexico has been facing gruesome crimes related to the drug war and drug cartels for decades. By August 2024, the National Register of Missing and Disappeared Persons recorded nearly 120,000 missing people in Mexico, often thought to be related to the drug war. To date, only 40 people have been convicted in court for the disappearances. This is an issue that is traumatic, painful and harmful for Mexicans and people impacted.
“Emilia Pérez” is a campy musical that almost feels like it satirizes the issue. The titular character acted as a trafficker before her transition — does her eventual activism forgive her initial crimes? The film certainly makes her seem empathetic.
The organization Transrespect documented 701 murders of trans people in Mexico from 2008 to 2023. That makes it the second most dangerous country in the world for trans people. “Emilia Pérez” does not touch on this issue at all.
Despite what the Academy has to say, people have found methods to speak out against the movie. The most creative, and my favorite, is short film “Johanne Sacreblu.”
This parody can be watched for free on YouTube, sitting currently at 2.6 million views. It calls itself “Una película muy Francesa” — “a very French film.” Filmed entirely in Mexico, characters don striped black and white shirts, reminiscent of mimes, and drawn on curly mustaches. In nearly every shot, fake rats are featured, sitting on table tops and even peeking out of characters’ clothing. It tells the story of the heiress of the biggest baguette producer in France, who falls in love with Agtugo Ratatouille, the heir to the biggest croissant company. Both of the heirs, fittingly, are transgender. The story is a fun, “French” spin on Romeo and Juliet.
The genius of “Johanne Sacreblu” lies in how forward it is. One look at the movie, the accents, the setting, and you think, “Wow, this movie is probably offensive to French people.” And that’s the point — it’s “a very French movie,” explicitly about France, and it’s nearly unbelievably stereotypical. As a direct homage to “Emilia Pérez,” it creatively shows the viewer just why the movie is so offensive, simply by flipping the narrative on its head.
“Johanne Sacreblu” holds an impressive 9.8/10 on IMDb with nearly 8,000 ratings, and a 4.6/5 on Letterboxd with 18,000 reviews. On Letterboxd, it’s 18th on the list of the highest-rated films ever on the platform. Compared to “Emilia Pérez’” abysmal 2.2/5 on Letterboxd and 5.7/10 on IMDb, I’d say that’s pretty impressive.
French director Audiard asks if he is entitled to speak about specific topics. He eventually decides that no matter identity, no matter background, any thinking, perceiving person, should be able to make art around topics that speak to them. There’s a world where I might agree with that statement — but that conversation doesn’t, and can’t exist, when the art in question is “Emilia Pérez.” In fact, Audiard essentially lost 15 million dollars in making a movie that proved him wrong.