With the 2025 Oscars now in the rearview mirror, let's take a look at the controversies surrounding "Emilia Pérez." The film follows the story of Gascón's titular character, Emilia Pérez, a Mexican drug cartel leader who fakes her death with the help of a lawyer (Saldaña) and undergoes gender-affirming surgery.

It was also a race that unfolded during one of the worst natural disasters in Los Angeles history, something that the Oscars reflected with tributes to the firefighters who worked to save communities engulfed by the wildfires,