Zoe Saldana at the 97th Oscars held at the Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2025 in Hollywood, California. … [+]
Penske Media via Getty ImagesEmilia Pérez led all nominees going into the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles but nearly left the ceremony empty-handed.
The musical crime drama was nominated in nearly all of the major categories, including Best Picture, Best Directing for Jacques Audiard, Best Actress for Karla Sofía Gascón and Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña.
In the end, Emilia Pérez won only two Oscars, potentially resulting from the backlash against the film after the discovery of some offensive tweets by Gascón that were posted in 2020 and 2021.
Despite the fallout from the tweet revelations, Emilia Pérez earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Saldaña and an Oscar for Best Original Song for “El Mal,” co-written by Clément Ducol, Camille and Audiard.
It was fairly apparent that the backlash against Gascón’s tweets was not going to affect Saldaña’s bid for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, considering that she swept the category at several major awards ceremonies during awards season. More recently, Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress honors from the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, aka the BAFTAs.
Saldaña was tearful during her emotional acceptance speech, where she paid tribute to her roots in the Dominican Republic and her late grandmother.
“My grandmother came to this country in 1961 — I am a proud child of immigrant parents. With dreams and dignity and hard-working hands, and I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last. I hope.” Saldaña said.
“The fact that I’m getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish — my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted,” Saldaña added. “This is for my grandmother.”
Karla Sofía Gascón at the 97th Oscars held at the Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2025 in Hollywood, … [+]
Penske Media via Getty ImagesConan O’Brien Poked Fun At Karla Sofía Gascón’s Tweet Controversy
Oscars 2025 host Conan O’Brien made controversy over Karla Sofía Gascón’s offensive tweets part of his opening monologue, which at first seemed to be a joke taking aim at the night’s eventual big winner Anora.
“I loved Anora. I really did. Yeah. Yeah. True story,” O’Brien said. “A little fact for you. Anora uses the F-word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascon’s publicist.”
Feigning Gascon’s publicist holding a phone to his ear, O’Brien screamed, “You tweeted that?”
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 02: (L-R) Jacques Audiard, Camille and Clément Ducol, winners of the … [+]
WireImageThen O’Brien directly aimed the joke at Gascón, who was in attendance at the ceremony after being largely absent from awards season events because of the tweet fallout.
“Karla Sofia Gascón, is here tonight, and Karla if you are going to tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel!”
Anora was the big winner of the 2025 Oscars, taking Best Picture, Best Actress for Mikey Madison, and Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing for Sean Baker.
Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Oscar for The Brutalist, while Kieran Culkin took the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for A Real Pain.
The 97th Oscars were held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles.
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