The rise and fall of Emilia Pérez (2024) says something new about the power of film to start social movements and awaken a sense of forgotten national pride. Mexico’s ongoing public response to Jacques Audiard’s latest film has been transformative, but not in the way the French director intended.

“Public response to the film has been transformative, but not in the way the director intended”

His two hour long, musical-drama-comedy about a Mexican drug lord that “transitions into a woman,” was supposed to bring international acclaim to Audiard for “daring” to approach a “brave theme” in a novel format. Initially, Audiard’s genre-bending bet paid off. Shortly after its release, Emilia Pérez became one of the stars of the 2024 edition of the Cannes film festival, and even garnered praise from Mexican filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro, who claimed it was refreshing, capital C ‘Cinema’. This acclaim continued after the film festival circuit, as Emilia Pérez became the second most nominated film in Golden Globe history, with ten nominations (it ended up winning four categories), and the film landed nominations in all major categories at this year’s Academy Awards.

But trouble began to loom in December 2024, suggesting an eventual collapse of Emilia Pérez’s filmic reign. The first signs of crumbling came after the social media virilization of an extract from an interview with the Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez. In the viral extract, Derbez brands Selena Gomez’s stilted, non-native Spanish in the film as “inexcusable”. This casual commentary would start a revolution. Thousands of Spanish-speakers listened to Derbez’s utterance, and subsequently were incited to view VPN-acquired snippets of Gomez in the film (the film was only officially released in Mexico in late January of this year), and started to ask “What on earth?”

Language, in particular the mastery of Spanish, then took centre stage in all debates about Emilia Pérez. Criticisms regarding shaky accents, downright offensive misuses of Mexican words, the fact Audiard is not fluent in Spanish (an incredible feat for the director of a Spanish-language film) and the film’s leading trio being made up of two American actors (none other than Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez) and Spanish Karla Sofía Gascón dominated the Mexican reception of the film.

Similarly, Audiard’s previous arrogant comments regarding his lack of research on Mexico prior to filming the film, and his careless utilisation of the national trauma of the cases of desaparecidos, to ‘spice up’ the film’s narrative, would be unearthed. More recently, racist and Islamophobic tweets from the actress that plays the title role, Karla Sofía Gascón, were discovered. In short, defending Emilia Pérez on any grounds nowadays has been rendered a near impossible task. Even Audiard and Saldana have distanced themselves from Gascón.

“Filmic acclaim is rarely, completely determined by a film’s material quality, and often has more to do with PR strategies”

However, it continues to be hard to comment on the public’s response to Emilia Pérez, as new and disturbing developments concerning the film’s cast and contents come to light every day. Nevertheless, a consensus seems to have emerged about Emilia Pérez around two key points. Firstly, the film’s rapid fall from grace in Western countries’ public opinion has spotlighted the superficiality of the film industry and its wealthy players. The same people and platforms like Netflix, that originally championed the film, are now criticising it. There are also unique instances of individuals like Derbez, who initially criticised the film, who now has apologised for his “insensitive” disparagement. Overall, these manifestations of seemingly overnight changes in opinion have showcased to the general public that filmic acclaim is rarely, completely determined by a film’s material quality, and often has more to do with PR strategies.

The second takeaway, however, is far more positive. Emilia Pérez has been rejected by ordinary people. Film critics and the film industry have found themselves at the mercy of the masses. A couple of decades ago, a French film set in Brazil called Black Orpheus (1959), similarly swept up every big, Western award under the sun. From the 1959 Palme D’or, to the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film was received terribly in Brazil, as the Brazilian public criticised it for its orientalising, romanticised portrayal of life in the favelas. Unfortunately, this outcry was largely unheard and ignored by Western audiences. Emilia Pérez, however, thanks to social media, the communication talents of online Mexican comedians and TikTok sensations like Jezzini, and to the parody film Johanne Sacreblu by the aspiring Mexican director Camila D. Aurora, public opinion has managed to triumph over the film establishment.

Ultimately, perhaps we will have to thank Audiard for his culturally insensitive provocation for having ignited a cultural, social movement in Mexico. As Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum makes rousing speeches against President Donald Trump’s anti-Mexican policies and provocations, it seems the Mexican filmgoing public will also stand together against ‘gringo’ cultural arrogance.

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