Awards season frontrunner 'Emilia Pérez' is being criticized after winning Golden Globes over 'Wicked.' Here's the controversy explained.

• Netflix's "Emilia Pérez" won four Golden Globes on Sunday, including the award for best musical or comedy.
• The film is expected to win big during awards season, including at the Oscars.
• But the film is facing growing criticism.

"Emilia Pérez" is a frontrunner for this year's Oscars, but as award season begins, a growing number of fans and critics are turning against it.

The Netflix film, starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Karla Sofía Gascón, is a cross-genre crime musical about a Mexican cartel boss who fakes her death so she can transition.

Variety reported that Netflix bought the film for approximately $12 million after it premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. While it wasn't a hit on the platform, it could boost Netflix's reputation if it wins big at the Oscars in March.

"Emilia Pérez" bagged four Golden Globes on Sunday, including the award for best musical or comedy motion picture over fan-favorite films including "Wicked," "The Substance," and "Challengers."

Some film fans criticized the decision, arguing that it is better than its competitors.

Here are the controversies surrounding the film, explained.

Fans mocked what they view as a bizarre musical number in the film

"Emilia Pérez" received rave reviews before it premiered on Netflix last November, but the general public seemingly hasn't been won over.

In one scene that went viral, a doctor sings about the gender reassignment surgeries he has performed.

Users on X who saw the clip out of context mocked the musical number, while others who had seen the film called it boring.

Film fans reignited criticism by resharing the scene after "Emilia Pérez" won at the Golden Globes on Sunday.

Gomez's performance and her Spanish language skills have also been criticized.

Eugenio Derbez, a Mexican actor who starred in 2021's "Coda," called her performance "indefensible" last December on the Mexican entertainment podcast "Hablando de Cine."

After Gomez said sorry and that she did the best she could with the time she was given, Derbez apologized the next day for his "thoughtless" comments.

Others have complained about how the film portrays trans identity

At first glance, it would seem progressive for a film about a trans person to win multiple Oscars, as an openly trans actor is yet to win an Academy Award. But critics say the film doesn't uplift the community, partly because it includes transphobic tropes, such as describing a transwoman as "half male/half female."

In November 2024, the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD called the film "a step backward for trans representation" and shared several negative reviews from critics who are trans.

On January 6, Gascón told Vanity Fair: "Many are running a negative, nasty campaign against the film, so anything that I say, they will use it to make their case bigger.

"When something has a big impact and is liked by many, others hate it just for existing."

When asked about critics who are trans panning the movie, Gascón said: "Being LGBTQ, having those labels, does not remove your stupidity, just like heterosexuality does not remove your stupidity.

"What bothers me is that the people that say things like that just sitting down at home doing nothing. If you don't like it, go and make your own movie. Go create the representation you want to see for your community."

Gascón added that the trans experience is not a monolith.

Juan Barquin, a critic of the movie who is trans and was mentioned in the Vanity Fair article, responded in an X post on Monday, telling Gascón to "go fuck herself" and give her money to make her own trans movie.

Another trans critic mentioned in the piece, Drew Burnett Gregory, said: "I've watched many trans actors and writers attach themselves to cis artists in the hopes of helping their careers.

"It's not a position I envy. When the dust settles and the awards are doled out, it's the cis people who have benefited while the trans people can barely get work."

On Monday, Jeremy O. Harris, a Tony-nominated playwright and actor, shared a Instagram story post criticizing the outlet THEM and other LGBTQ+ detractors of "Emilia Pérez," arguing its success could open doors for representation.

Some criticized how Mexico is portrayed

"Emilia Pérez" is mostly set in Mexico, but the film's director, Jacques Audiard, is French, and the movie was made in France. In addition, one Mexican-born actor has a lead role: Adriana Paz. Gomez is American and has Mexican heritage; Saldaña's parents are Dominican and Puerto Rican; and Gascón is Spanish.

Users on X, including Mexican actors and cinematographers, argued the film doesn't accurately portray Mexico, its culture, and people.

Rodrigo Prieto, a Mexican, Oscar-nominated cinematographer who worked on "Barbie," "Killers of the Flower Moon," and "The Wolf of Wall Street," told Deadline last November that he was "unhappy" the film was not shot in Mexico and didn't include more Mexican people in the production.

"The whole thing is completely inauthentic," Prieto said. "Yes, they had dialogue coaches but I was offended that such a story was portrayed in a way that felt so inauthentic.

"It was just the details for me. You would never have a jail sign that read 'Cárcel' it would be 'Penitenciaria'. It's just the details, and that shows me that nobody that knew was involved. And it didn't even matter. That was very troubling to me."

In December 2024, casting director Carla Hool told a SAG-AFTRA foundation Q&A that her team searched across Mexico and Latin America for the lead roles.

"We wanted to keep it really authentic, but at the end of the day, the best actors who embodied the characters are the ones right here," Hool said, adding that they changed the backgrounds of Gomez and Saldaña's characters' because they aren't native Mexicans.

This further angered critics.

Representatives for Gascón, Netflix, and THEM, did not immediately respond to a comment request from Business Insider.