Award Show Controversies: 2025’s Award Season has given us much to discuss

With the 2025 award season coming to an end, it’s time to reflect on the many highlights of the year in the entertainment industry. However, this season has not been without its fair share of controversies. From “Emilia Pérez” discourse to Adrien Brody’s uncomfortably long Oscar acceptance speech, there is much to touch on when it comes to award show controversies this year.

“Emilia Pérez,” a movie about a retired cartel boss’s transition into a woman with the help of a Mexican lawyer, won many awards this season. Directed by French director Jacques Audiard, Emelia Perez had a star-studded cast, including Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana, and Karla Sofía Gascón. Although many awards were won, much controversy has been connected to this movie.

Before we get to the main controversy of this film, we must know everything else wrong with “Emilia Pérez.” Many negative stereotypes about trans women are incorporated in this movie, and it is seen to portray trans women as liars. According to ABC News, “Emilia Pérez” “has garnered criticism from LGBTQ advocates about the film’s portrayal of the trans community.” Some even call it a “step back in trans representation.”

Online discourse has also seen this movie as a poor representation of Mexican people and the Spanish language in general. The “Mexican lawyer” in this movie is played by a Puerto Rican woman (Zoe Saldana), which has caused people to question her role in the film.

Furthermore, Selena Gomez learned Spanish for her role in the movie, and people across social media have commented on her poor pronunciation and just not great acting throughout the film. Many people connect these problems to the director, who has made poorly intended comments about the Spanish language, saying, “It’s a language of countries of few means, of poor people,” according to ABC News.

These many issues with the movie created controversy for the film’s actors and director, but things got much worse in January when old posts from Karla Sofía Gascón were released on X. Her old X posts criticized Islam, saying “Islam is becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured.”

Gascón also commented on the death of George Floyd, who died in 2020 at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin, saying, “I truly believe that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict and a hustler.” She continued her post by making horrible remarks about black people. These posts gave the movie a bad reputation, and although Karla apologized, she wasn’t paid to attend the Oscars.

To continue, the film “Anora,” winning the most Oscars at this year’s ceremony, starring Mikey Madison and directed by Sean Baker, had a controversy of its own. According to an article by Vox, “There was the revelation from Madison that she didn’t use an intimacy coordinator for the film’s sex scenes after being given the option by Baker.”

Many people questioned Baker’s professionalism and care for his actors, with him allowing no intimacy coordinator, which is important to protect actors. This controversy had no impact on the film’s chance of winning, as the film took home 5 Oscars, which was more than any other film received this year. Still, it’s questionable that no intimacy coordinator worked on a film that is about sex workers and included multiple sexual scenes.

Furthermore, actor Adrien Brody, star of “The Brutalist,” caused much conversation surrounding his Oscar speech and other strange behavior at the ceremony. Brody won the Oscar for Best Actor at this year’s ceremony, and on his way to accepting his award, he threw his gum at his girlfriend, Georgina Chapman, which was seen as gross and just all-around weird across social media.

Brody then went on to deliver a 5-minute and 40-second speech. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Brody’s speech went on and on. And he refused to be cowed when the show’s producers cued some music to play him off the stage,” telling them to turn off the music because he has more to say.

As far as the controversy surrounding award shows, in general, this year, fans across social media are angry at the lack of awards for “Wicked” and “A Complete Unknown.” According to an article by Variety, “Wicked is in many ways the movie of the year, in that it’s been a massive box office success, a critically praised awards season movie, and a galvanizing cultural event.”

Despite great success and love among fans, Wicked only walked away with one award this year at the Golden Globes for box office achievements. This movie had lots of representation and has been a beloved musical for many years, but somehow, Emelia Perez won over them many times.

“A Complete Unknown,” a biopic of Bob Dylan starring Timothée Chalamet, also had bad luck during this award season. Although this film was nominated for 3 Golden Globes and 8 Oscars, the film didn’t win, and people are quite angry considering Timothée Chalamet’s amazing performance.

2025’s award season was quite interesting, and there was much to talk about. As we look forward to future award seasons, it’s clear that these discussions will continue to shape the conversation around recognition in the arts and ethical workspaces.