A lot can change in a few days during awards season, huh?
For the longest time, it looked like the Best International Feature Oscar race would come down to a pair of movies that dropped at the 2024 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Indeed, “Emilia Pérez” and “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig” would be the two features duking it out for this Oscar. Then, the morning of the Oscar nominations, a wrench got thrown into the proceedings as “Emilia Pérez” received a leading, astounding 13 Oscar nominations, and “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig” only received one nomination for Best International Feature Film. However, the Brazilian film “I’m Still Here,” the latest feature from cinema legend Walter Salles, shocked everyone by receiving a Best Picture nomination following its Golden Globe Best Actress – Drama win for Fernanda Torres (who also received the film’s third nomination for Best Actress). Now, the Oscar race we originally thought would come down to France and Germany is now down to France and Brazil. Being the first Brazilian film to make it into the Best Picture Oscar category, “I’m Still Here” has surged over the past few days as more and more Academy voters catch up with the film, but then, to make matters more exciting/complicated the face of “Emilia Pérez” and the first ever transgender Best Actress Oscar nominee, Karla Sofia Gascon’s cruel tweets resurfaced. And now, all eyes are watching to see if Sony Pictures Classics can capitalize on this PR nightmare and bring an Oscar win to Brazil with “I’m Still Here” for Best International Feature.
“Emilia Pérez” made a big splash at Cannes in May 2024 by winning the Jury Prize and Best Actress prizes at the festival. With Netflix subsequently picking up its distribution rights in the US and United Kingdom, it quickly became apparent that it would become the streamer’s big player for the 2024-2025 awards season. Since then, it’s scored a slew of Golden Globe trophies and other major awards season wins, including the European Film Award.
Regardless of the acclaim and award wins, there had already been some warning signs for “Emilia Pérez” all season long. On the fall festival circuit, it failed to pick up significant awards specific to the movie at events like the SCAD Savannah Film Festival or the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Mexican critics and audiences were very vocal in their disdain for the film, especially following several comments from director Jacques Audiard, who said that many found it to be in poor taste and did not take the feelings of the Mexican community into consideration when making the film. As more and more people saw the film after its premiere on Netflix, audience scores continued to drop, and now the film sits at 73% on Rotten Tomatoes with an 18% Audience Score and a 2.2 on Letterboxd. None of this, however, was stopping the film from receiving awards and nominations from the industry, as it received ten Golden Globe Award nominations (and four wins), ten Critics Choice Award nominations, and eleven BAFTA nominations, on top of the previously mentioned 13 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best International Feature Film.
By comparison, “I’m Still Here” has only won Best International Feature from the Puerto Rico Critics Association (PRCA) and Palm Springs International Film Festival. However, there was clearly some buzz within the Academy for this film in the lead-up to Oscar nominations. Without oodles of Netflix money at its back or even hitting its general North American theatrical release, “I’m Still Here” still made it into this year’s crop of Best Picture Oscar nominees. That alone suggests it has a fanbase that can’t be discounted, especially since it became the rare foreign language film to secure a Best Actress nomination for Fernanda Torres following her Golden Globe win. It’s clear this was a late-breaker for awards voters, and if given more time, it could’ve secured additional nominations for Salles in Director and Murilo Hauser & Heitor Lorega for Best Adapted Screenplay following their win in that category at the Venice Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere.
“I’m Still Here” is also resonating with global moviegoers, a key facet for the Academy now that its voter base stretches far beyond American borders. Brazilian moviegoers have shown up in full force for “I’m Still Here” and have received it rapturously. Compare that to “Emilia Pérez” becoming a punching bag in Mexico, to the point that it’s inspired parody videos from trans comedians in the countries. Social media backlash does not immediately torpedo a movie’s Oscar reputation, as evidenced by the Best Picture-winning “Green Book.” However, the hostility towards “Emilia Pérez” has been simmering for months and has only gotten worse in recent days.
Over the final days of January 2025, a deluge of tweets from “Emilia Pérez,” leading lady Karla Sofia Gascon posted in the late 2010s and early 2020s resurfaced. These social media posts were full of insensitive rhetoric, Islamophobic insults, and more. Gason apologized for the tweets and then deleted her social media presence with an awkward statement that somewhat backpedaled her remorse with statements like “I’m sorry if I ever offended anyone.” Suddenly, the entire lynchpin of “Emilia Pérez” was awash in controversy and hateful rhetoric.
In the blink of an eye, obstacles to “Emilia Pérez” scoring a Best International Feature Oscar win, like France’s lack of domination in this category for years, vanished. Now, the entire reputation of “Emilia Pérez” is defined by not just that “vaginoplasty” song or Zoe Saldana’s character cringily turning to the camera to talk about what a good trans ally she is. It’s all those things plus Gascon’s hateful rhetoric that stands firmly in contrast to “I’m Still Here’s” messages emphasizing the necessity of unity, healing, and working-class solidarity. Surely, this has to resonate with some voters, right? Perhaps not as many Academy voters still take a stance of “Separate the art from the artist” and will judge the movie on its own terms despite what its leading star has said outside of the film.
This all begs the question, does “I’m Still Here” suddenly seize a Best International Feature win now? Possibly, though, it’s still like “Emilia Pérez’s” Oscar to lose. Let’s be clear: Gascon’s words are terrible and hurtful. However, so many Oscar voters may not care about her tweets. They may just cast a ballot for “Emilia Pérez” because it’s the film they simply like the most. Smaller Best International Feature distributors like Mubi, Neon, and Janus Films can’t hope to compete with Netflix’s infinite number of resources, and the streaming giant has been very wise to distance themselves from Karla and focus all of their energy behind getting Zoe Saldana an Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress.
Still, “I’m Still Here” has a solid shot now at securing Brazil’s very first win in the Best International Feature category. “Emilia Pérez” and its reductive approach to Mexico and trans lives have already been garnering criticism for months now, and this latest development may have been the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. It would be far more difficult to imagine if “I’m Still Here” did not receive a Best Picture nomination. But it did. As a result, it places it squarely in the hunt to potentially upset the frontrunner that, throughout the majority of the season, many felt had this category on lockdown. This latest maelstrom of controversy (punctuated by director Jacques Audiard’s baffling comments about the Spanish language) might open up a chance for “I’m Still Here” at the Oscars to overperform and perhaps even win Best Actress alongside the Best International Feature win. With no additional Oscar nominations, “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig” is no longer the real threat to win Best International Feature against “Emilia Pérez.” It’s “I’m Still Here.” Now, all eyes will be on Critics Choice and BAFTA to see if “I’m Still Here” will dethrone “”Emilia Pérez” in this category early, giving us a preview of what may be to come on Oscar night. Or, the controversial French-Mexican film will press on, business as usual, until Oscar night, leaving us all in suspense if the backlash was able to catch up with it or not. Regardless, this race has become far more interesting than anyone could’ve predicted several days ago.
What will win the Oscar for Best International Feature Film? “Emilia Pérez” or “I’m Still Here?” Please let us know in the comments below or on Next Best Picture’s X account, and be sure to check out Next Best Picture’s latest Oscar predictions here.
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