Trans musical ‘Emilia Pérez’ is winning awards and igniting controversy

By LG Staff

By LG Staff

January 29, 2025

“Emilia Pérez” is quickly becoming an awards-show favorite, raking in four Golden Globe wins and 13 Oscar nominations — plus SAG Award nods, too.

The sweeping Spanish-language operatic musical defies easy categorization, as star Karla Sofía Gascón acknowledged in an interview for Netflix’s Tudum blog in January.

“You have an action movie that’s not an action movie, a drama that’s not a drama, a comedy that’s not a comedy,” she said.

Gascón plays dual roles in the gritty film: first, that of Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, a murderous Mexican gang leader who dreams of living openly as a woman.

The cartel kingpin recruits a lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), to help her fake her own death and secretly obtain gender-affirming care — and at last, her new, authentic self, Emilia Pérez, is born.

However, Emilia cannot completely escape her violent origins, and when her wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), comes back into the picture, past and present collide in tragic ways.

Some critics and filmmakers have raved about French director Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical, with Variety calling the movie “dazzling” and fellow director Michael Mann calling it a “contemporary masterpiece.”

However, many viewers have criticized the Netflix film for its lack of cultural authenticity and its transgender representation.

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