Emilia Pérez won the most Golden Globes, but here’s the film’s controversial backlash explained

Emilia Pérez won big at last night’s Golden Globes, taking home more awards than any other film. It beat out huge hitters to the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy including acclaimed movies such as Anora, The Substance and Challengers. And whilst many in the industry celebrated Emilia Pérez and numerous big names like James Cameron, Meryl Streep and Madonna ranked it amongst their favourite films of the year – others have called out numerous issues with the picture deemed problematic. Here’s the backlash to Emilia Pérez after the Golden Globes win explained.

For context, Emilia Pérez is a Spanish language French film by Jacques Audiard, starring Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón in the titular role. The film is a musical centred around a Mexican cartel leader who gets a lawyer to help her disappear and transition into a woman named Emilia, living her authentic life freely as a trans person.

The director got backlash for saying he ‘knew enough’ about Mexican culture

The French director, who is not fluent in either English or Spanish, stated that he did not need to learn about Mexican culture because he already knew “enough.” Which explains why his film was full of offensive stereotypes and misrepresentation.pic.twitter.com/6BYaxzwCxd

— D. 🍀💎 (@offthetableag) January 6, 2025

Jacques Audiard got into hot water for saying that he didn’t need to learn about Mexican culture because he said he already knew enough. This ruffled feathers online.

None of the main cast were Mexican

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The casting director declared that the cast was supposed to be Mexican, but there were not enough talented Mexican actors. All the actors were Europeans and foreigners with Latin “origins” like Selena Gomez born and raised in the USA pic.twitter.com/LqIKu3gVUW

— D. 🍀💎 (@offthetableag) January 6, 2025

The casting director explained that although they did “a big search” in Mexico, Spain, Latin America and the US and said that in the end the best actors who embodied the characters were the three cast.

They changed Selena Gomez’s character from being Mexican 

Selena then got some criticism from a Mexican actor who criticised her accent. Selena responded to this saying she did the best with the time she was given.

One song in particular has received a lot of criticism

THIS WON “BEST MUSICAL” OVER WICKED LMAOOOOOOO THE CISGENDER GUILT AT THE GOLDEN GLOBES IS PALPABLE pic.twitter.com/uUST6MaXlN

— FRAN ™ (@franfury_) January 6, 2025

I think the reason for why this might be getting backlash speaks for itself, if you listen to the lyrics.

GLAAD criticised the film’s portrayal of a trans woman

A lot of the backlash towards Emilia Pérez prior to the big Golden Globes win has come from LGBTQ writers and publications, with GLAAD deeming it “a profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman”.

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