Oscars rocked by ‘racism’ scandal, AI row and deadly wildfires leaving Best Picture race wide open

AS the Oscar hopefuls met up for a glamorous pre-awards dinner this week, one major nominee was missing. Karla Sofia Gascon, who became the first ever transgender Best Actress nominee for her role in Emilia Perez, stayed away from the annual “class photo”.

The actress has been shunned since racist tweets of hers were unearthed following the film’s 13 nominations. But that is not the only controversy in what has been one of the most chaotic run-ups to Hollywood’s biggest night of the year. Scandals over AI, blackface and intimacy co-ordinators have dogged three of the hopefuls, raising questions over dirty tricks campaigns by rival camps.

One thing is for certain. All these bust-ups have left the race for Best Picture wide open. British-produced Papal drama Conclave will be in with a good shout when the winners are announced on Sunday night, as will sex worker comedy Anora and quirky horror The Substance.

But many people have questioned whether the Academy Awards should go ahead at all in the wake of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles which killed at least 29 people. Host Conan O’Brien acknowledged how difficult it will be, saying: “This is a massive moment, this is a terrible thing that’s happened in Los Angeles.

“As an entertainer, I need to try to figure out, ‘What’s the best way to respond to this?’.”. There were plenty of smiles on Tuesday night when nominees including Ralph Fiennes, Timothee Chalamet, Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Adrien Brody enjoyed a dinner at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.

Afterwards,   they sat in the David Geffen Theater’s plush red seats for the annual group photo. But plenty of the wannabe winners must be secretly gritting their teeth at the back-stabbing that goes on in the fight for the coveted awards. The Brutalist, an epic tale about a Hungarian Holocaust survivor and architect played by Brody, was the bookies’ early favourite to pick up the Best Picture statuette.

But after doing best at the Golden Globes with three of the night’s top awards, stories started to circulate that director Brady Corbet had used AI to smooth out the Hungarian accents of Brody and his British co-star, Felicity Jones. It was ironic because Corbet used old-fashioned 35mm film to make the movie extra-realistic.

But the director insisted: “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own. “They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents.”. Brody has also been caught up in a “blackface” controversy. After winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor, it was revealed he had worn a dreadlock wig for his introduction of reggae star Sean Paul on US comedy show Saturday Night Live in 2003.

A similar scandal has engulfed I’m Still Here’s Fernanda Torres, who is up for Best Actress. In January, the Brazilian star apologised for blacking up in a comedy sketch show 20 years ago. After receiving 13 Oscar nominations, Spanish-language musical Emilia Perez appeared to be a sure-fire winner.

But the backlash was swift and fierce. There were complaints over the fact a movie about Mexican drug cartels had been made in France by a French director — in a light-hearted way. Mexican screenwriter Hector Guillen commented: “Mexico hates Emilia Perez. Racist Euro Centrist Mockery.

“Almost 500k dead and France decides to do a musical.”. The film sees Spanish actress Karla Gascon play a drug baron going through gender reassignment surgery to become Emilia Perez. She alleged that the negative comments about the film were being orchestrated by the people behind the movie I’m Still Here and those backing her rival for the Best Actress gong, Fernanda Torres.

She wrote: “There are people working with Fernanda Torres tearing me and Emilia Perez down. “That speaks more about their movie than mine.”. Just a couple of days later, a journalist dug up old social media posts by 52-year-old Karla. In 2021, she tweeted that “the West should ban Islam” and, a year earlier, described George Floyd, the black man who was murdered by a white police officer, as “a drug addict swindler”.

She also defended Adolf Hitler by commenting: “I do not understand such world war against Hitler — he simply had his opinion about the Jews.”. It is also unlikely that Academy voters will appreciate Gascon describing the 2021 Oscars as “an ugly, ugly gala” similar to “a Black Lives Matter demonstration”.

Within 24 hours, her chances of being named Best Actress evaporated and the film’s awards campaign was all but derailed. Karla’s half-hearted apology, in which she claimed “I, myself, am not even aware of having written something negative”, did not help matters.

Fortunately, Karla’s co-star Zoe Saldana has not suffered as a result of the controversy. She has won best supporting actress at all the major awards events this year and is nailed on to do so again on Sunday. One of the big questions for the televised ceremony is whether Karla, who swerved the Baftas in London, will even turn up.