Creating history, 2025 Oscar nominations are revealed with first openly transgender actress nominated for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’. Karla Sofía Gascón has played the main character in ‘Emilia Pérez’.
The movie directed by Jacques Audiard, is the French movie. Set in Mexico, it has become one of the most talked-about topics of the 2025 awards season. With 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, this production has ignited debate and drawn much criticism from Mexicans.
The plot here is a complex mix of genres, including musical comedy, crime drama, and social commentary. The story follows Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, a powerful Mexican drug lord who, tired of his criminal life and ready to embrace his true identity, decides to undergo a gender transition to become Emilia Pérez. This radical change not only transforms his life but also deeply affects those around him.
The story of Emilia Pérez is not based on real events. Jacques Audiard drew inspiration from the novel Écoute by Boris Razon, which features a drug lord with a desire to transition genders.
Karla Sofía Gascón is a Spanish actress. She has developed part of her career in the Americas, featuring in the comedy film The Noble Family (2013) and the narcoseries El Señor de los Cielos.
Gascón gained wide attention for portraying the title character in the musical crime film Emilia Pérez (2024). For the role, she jointly won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress with her co-stars, becoming the first transgender actress to win the prize, as well as the European Film Award for Best Actress. She also became the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
School of Cinematography and Audiovisual of the Community of Madrid (Spanish: Escuela de Cinematografía y del Audiovisual de la Comunidad de Madrid; ECAM), also sometimes referred to as “The Madrid Film School”, is a film school located in Ciudad de la Imagen, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain. It was founded in 1994.
Gascón was born 31 March 1972 in Alcobendas. In her childhood, she playacted with her brother, and, at 16, she decided to pursue an acting career. She earned an acting degree from the ECAM. She worked in London on a BBC series for Spanish-language learning and in Milan voicing puppets for children’s shows.
She appeared in Spanish daily soap opera El súper portraying a flight attendant, as well as in other shows such as Calle nueva and El pasado es mañana. Early roles also included film appearances in Se buscan fulmontis (1999), Me da igual (2000), Box 507 (2002), and Say I Do (2004).
She made a one-time return to the Spanish film industry to star alongside Tony Isbert in El cura y el veneno. In box-office hit The Noble Family (2013), she played a character from Puebla with aspirations of becoming a Spaniard. In 2014, she appeared in El Señor de los Cielos as the “ruthless” Spaniard Iñaki Izarrieta, an associate of Aurelio Casillas.
In 2018, having completed most of her gender transition, Gascón published her autobiography Karsia, Una historia extraordinaria (‘Karsia: an Extraordinary Story’) under her birth name, doubling as a public announcement of her new identity as Karla Sofía Gascón. She portrayed Lourdes Buendía in the teen drama series Rebelde (2022).[15] In 2024, she starred in Jacques Audiard’s musical crime comedy film ‘Emilia Pérez’, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. In the film, she portrayed a powerful cartel leader who fakes death, medically transitions and is reborn as Emilia Pérez.
Now, the Oscars 2025 nominations are out, with The Brutalist and ‘Emilia Pérez’ leading the list. Sadly, no Indian film made the cut. Key nominations include Anora, Dune: Part Two, and Wicked in Best Picture. The main event is set for March 2, 2025.
Oscars 2025 full nominations list:
Best Director: Sean Baker — Anora; Brady Corbet — The Brutalist; James Mangold — A Complete Unknown; Jacques Audiard — Emilia Pérez; Coralie Fargeat — The Substance
Best Actor: Adrien Brody — The Brutalist; Timothée Chalamet — A Complete Unknown; Colman Domingo — Sing Sing; Ralph Fiennes — Conclave; Sebastian Stan — The Apprentice
Best Supporting Actress: Monica Barbaro — A Complete Unknown; Ariana Grande-Butera — Wicked; Felicity Jones — The Brutalist; Isabella Rossellini — Conclave; Zoe Saldaña — Emilia Pérez
Best Supporting Actor: Yura Borisov — Anora; Kieran Culkin — A Real Pain; Edward Norton — A Complete Unknown; Guy Pearce — The Brutalist; Jeremy Strong — The Apprentice
Best Original Screenplay: Anora; The Brutalist; A Real Pain; September 5; The Substance
Best Adapted Screenplay: A Complete Unknown; Conclave; Emilia Pérez; Nickel Boys; Sing Sing
Best Animated Feature Film: Flow; Inside Out 2; Memoir of a Snail; Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl; The Wild Robot
Best Documentary Feature Film: Black Box Diaries; No Other Land; Porcelain War; Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat;
Sugarcane
Best Original Score: The Brutalist; Conclave; Emilia Pérez; Wicked; The Wild Robot
Best Original Song: “El Mal” — Emilia Pérez; “The Journey” — Six Triple Eight; “Like a Bird” — Sing Sing; “Mi Camino” — Emilia Pérez; “Never Too Late” — Elton John: Never Too Late
Best Cinematography: The Brutalist; Dune: Part Two; Emilia Pérez; Maria; Nosferatu
Best Production Design: The Brutalist; Conclave; Dune: Part Two; Nosferatu; Wicked
Best Costume Design: A Complete Unknown; Conclave; Gladiator II; Nosferatu; Wicked
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: A Different Man; Emilia Pérez; Nosferatu; The Substance; Wicked
Best Visual Effects: Alien: Romulus; Better Man; Dune: Part Two; Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes; Wicked
Best Sound: A Complete Unknown; Dune: Part Two; Emilia Pérez; Wicked; The Wild Robot
Best Film Editing: Anora; The Brutalist; Conclave; Emilia Pérez; Wicked
Best Animated Short Film: Beautiful Men; In the Shadow of the Cypress; Magic Candies; Wander to Wonder;Yuck!
Best Documentary Short Film: Death By Numbers; I Am Ready Warden; Incident; Instruments of a Beating Heart;
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Educationist/Administrator/Editor/Author/Speaker
Commencing teaching in his early twenties, Prof Aggarwal has diverse experience of great tenure in the top institutions not only as an educationist, administrator, editor, author but also promoting youth and its achievements through the nicest possible content framing. A revolutionary to the core, he is also keen to address the society around him for its betterment and growth on positive notes while imbibing the true team spirit the work force along with.
Comments