The unearthing of inflammatory social media remarks by the actress about subjects including George Floyd, Islam and the Oscars itself has caused a storm – and may threaten the film's overall chances at this year's Academy Awards.

Karla Sofía Gascón made Oscars history by being the first trans woman to be nominated in the best actress category. Up until this week, there was a chance that she might make history again by winning the award, too. But now? "I think we can safely say that Karla Sofía Gascón won’t be winning anything," Wendy Ide, film critic of The Observer, tells the BBC.

Gascón plays a trans Mexican drug lord-turned-philanthropist in Jacques Audiard's operatic musical-thriller, Emilia Pérez – a film that has long been one of the favourites to take home the 2025 Academy Awards' biggest prizes, including best picture, but was already clouded in controversy. Some Mexican commentators have objected to the French writer-director's depiction of their country, and to the paucity of Mexican talent in the production, most of which was shot near Paris. That might not have been enough to turn the Academy's voters against Emilia Pérez, which received 13 nominations, but now there's a bigger issue for them to consider.

Earlier this week, Gascón complained in an interview that the social media team working with Fernanda Torres, a best actress nominee for I'm Still Here, was "tearing me and Emilia Pérez down". She then backtracked, claiming that she was "referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media" in general. But the impression lingered that Gascón had attacked a competitor in a way that was against the spirit of the Oscars. Still, that was a storm in a teacup compared to the hurricane of old X posts that were unearthed by journalist Sarah Hagi, and subsequently reported in Variety. Posted during 2020 and 2021, they included numerous offensive remarks about George Floyd, Chinese people, Muslim women and Islam in general, to name but a few of Gascón's targets. To top it all? A post attacking The Oscars themselves. Of the 2021 event, at which Nomadland won best picture, Gascón said: "More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M [a Spanish way of referring to International Women's Day]. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala."

The irony is that, because Gascón is trans, and the film offers a sympathetic, nuanced portrayal of a trans protagonist, part of the film's appeal to voters was that it seemed so progressive. But there is nothing progressive about the anti-diversity content of her posts. "Emilia Pérez's chances are strongly linked to its liberal credentials," says Ed Potton, an arts editor at The Times. "Once those are lost, they'll be hard to regain."

On Friday, Gascón released a statement saying that she was "deeply sorry to those I have caused pain", but the damage is done. "She was always an outside chance for best actress," says Ide. "But I would now be very surprised if Emilia Pérez won best picture, and this time last week it felt like a strong........

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