‘Emilia Pérez’ Post Gascón Controversy: Zoe Saldaña Tells Critics Choice Crowd To Be “Curious And Openhearted”; Songwriter Calls Awards Season “Hectic” 

The fallout from Emilia Perez‘s Karla Sofía Gascón’s racist and Islamophobic social media was never expected to have any impact on the pic’s traction at the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards given that the Jan. 10 ballot deadlines occurred prior to the Jan. 30. scandal.

That said, the CCA winners of the Netflix pic duly ensured they didn’t draw any more negative attention to the film post Gascón. In fact, the first openly trans Oscar nominee’s name wasn’t even brought up. Instead in all three of the recipients’ acceptance speeches –Zoe Saldaña for Best Supporting Actress, songwriters Camille and Clement Ducol for Original Song “El Mal” and Jacques Audiard for Best International Film — the group stuck to the positive takeaways of the LGBTQ+ noir feature musical.

Rather than send her acceptance speech to the teleprompter, Saldaña opted to read it from a folded piece of paper in her pocket, underscoring at the end of it, “My wish for the impact of this film on audiences and our world is that I hope we can all be curious and openhearted towards each other because you never know when you’ll have the opportunity to be a hero in someone else’s story; our world is too big and too beautiful to be any other way. Stay curious, stay kind and stay blue (not too blue)” (the last part of that line referring to her role in the Avatar franchise). Saldaña expressed on social and in a London Q&A her sadness over the whole Gascón scandal on Jan. 31.

When Camille received her award tonight, she exclaimed, “It gives us such a sense of belonging” before adding “This awards season can be so hectic, so overwhelming” in what could be interpreted as a slight nod to the latest headlines surrounding the film. She promptly said after that, “I feel like saying sometimes ‘Ya know I’m just a bird'” before she broke out in a small tune onstage.  

Gascón, who skipped out on this weekend’s busy awards ceremonies the PGAs, DGAs and Critics Choice, took to social last night to say that she plans to be silent for the duration of Emilia Perez‘s Oscar campaign and “allow the film to be appreciated for what it is.”

Gascón was up for Best Actress but lost to Demi Moore who continued her post Globes rally for her turn in Mubi’s The Substance.

Emilia Perez also won Original Song, Best Non-English Film, and Supporting Actress for Saldaña at the Golden Globes in addition to Best Comedy/Musical Feature. Tomorrow night, Audiard is up for Best Feature Director at the DGAs while Emilia Perez is up for Best Theatrical Motion Picture at the PGA Awards. PGA Awards voting closed on Jan. 30, which was the day Gascón’s tweets were unearthed.