It was in 2020 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences instituted a new policy for inclusion of a film in the Best Motion Picture category at its annual Academy Awards ceremony. For a movie to be considered for nomination, the studio must submit an “Academy Inclusion Standards” form that displays how the production met certain inclusion criteria in two of the four categories in order for the movie to qualify for consideration.

Gone were the days of honoring a film purely on its artistic merit; now we get to be told what is the Best Affirmative Action Motion Picture!  

Ever since the Academy began harping on this new artistic standard, the finalists at the Oscars have become a rather distancing clutch of films for the broader audience. Even with the expanded Best Picture category - which unlike other categories boasts up to 10 titles, as opposed to the usual five - this year’s list includes a collection of films that most people aren't familiar with. 

This year’s overwhelming favorite is “Emila Pérez,” coming into the ceremony with 13 nominations. This is a Netflix production and even though it is available for streaming in most homes, it is not exactly lighting up the movie audience, as it does not even appear in the top 10 most-watched films on the platform. Listen to the premise, and behold the check-box celebration: This is a Spanish-language French production over two hours long set in Mexico about a violent cartel drug lord who wants to get out of the business by transitioning into being a woman. And it is a musical.

The film was awarded a Jury Prize and the cast took Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. At The Golden Globes, it took trophies for Best Musical/Comedy, Best Non-English Film, and Zoe Saldana took the honors as Supporting Actress, all leading to over a dozen Oscar nominations. Hollywood is beside itself in praising how it is celebrating this “landmark” film. And yet, it is heavily criticized by those expected to fully embrace the film.

Each year the biggest gay rights advocacy group hosts its own entertainment ceremony, The GLAAD Media Awards, and in looking over the list of more than 300 nominees in nearly three dozen categories, the movie “Emilia Pérez” has not garnered a single nod. It turns out that the film that Hollywood has panegyrized effusively is scorned by the leaders of the gay community.

“‘Emilia Pérez’ is a step backward for trans representation,” GLAAD explained in November in a breakdown of its release compiled from a number of critics from the community. The group cites representations that are considered tropes in Hollywood’s portrayals of the trans community. Some of the main complaints served up concerns that while it was hyped coming out of Cannes, most of the reviews praising the film were not from members of the LGBTπ community, and so as the movie was building cultural and critical steam, it was driving away the very community it was depicting. Among the other critiques have been that the transitioning in the storyline is used as an act of redemption, where a murderous drug lord is heralded after the transition.

Adding fuel to the resistance to this film are some of the comments from the star of the movie, the trans performer Karla Garcia Gascon. Despite being nominated for the performance, Gascon has been angered and lashed out at those in the gay-trans community who have been critical of the film and/or the performance onscreen. 

What seems apparent in all of this furor is that the Academy is essentially rushing to congratulate itself for upholding its own warped standards of approved filmmaking. After installing the rather ludicrous requirements of compulsory inclusion in order to judge art, it has overhyped a release that exemplifies their efforts without actually judging the film on merit. As a result, they are celebrating a film that misrepresents the trans community, insults the portrayal of the Mexican community with performers who are from other cultures and who speak the dialect improperly, and essentially presents a flawed character portrayal by using a transformation as a means of absolving sins. The implication is the title character is now above criticism as they are now properly transitioned.

The effect is that Hollywood is acting out in the most aggressive activist fashion, basically waving banners that show how accepting and welcoming they are to the trans community. This is explained by B.J. Colangelo at Slash Film.

"Academy voters are completely out of touch and clearly voting for the guise of performative progress of what “Emilia Pérez” symbolizes, rather than let the communities represented in the film take the lead and determine whether or not this is a portrayal that deserves celebration.”

This is the result when you begin and end the assessment of artistic quality based solely on the representation of social categories. When you do not judge on the basis of merit and craft, you end up celebrating what is closer to caricature than true representation.