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 Brutalist’s Adrien Brody enjoyed a dinner at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles this week[/caption]
Demi Moore is Oscar nominated for her role in The Substance[/caption]
British actress Cynthia Erivo is nominated for her role in Wicked[/caption]
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.
Ralph Fiennes stars in papal drama Conclave[/caption]
Zoe Saldana stars in Emilia Perez[/caption]
Emilia Perez’s Karla Sofia Gascon may not even turn up to the Oscars[/caption]
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.”
Many have questioned the awards going ahead in the wake of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles[/caption]
Mikey Mikey did not have an intimacy supervisor for her sex scenes in Anora[/caption]
The Brutalist has come under fire for its use of AI[/caption]
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.
The talk is that she will be there on the red carpet.
Some Catholics have called Conclave blasphemous[/caption]
Mikey Madison is nominated for Anora[/caption]
With Emilia Perez and The Brutalist falling by the wayside, that left the way open for highly praised sex comedy Anora.
Its star Mikey Madison upset the odds at the Baftas by pipping The Substance’s Demi Moore to the Best Actress gong.
But Mikey, 25, did not have an intimacy supervisor when she performed the no-holds-barred naked sex scenes in the film, directed by Sean Baker, despite her acting union expecting one to be on set for such moments.
Mikey insisted she was offered one and turned it down because, “My character is a sex worker, and I had seen Sean’s films and know his dedication to authenticity”.
All this has left Conclave as the front runner.
Written by British playwright Peter Straughan, it stars Ralph Fiennes as the fictional Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, who is charged with organising a conclave to select a new Pope.
It won best film at both the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Baftas.
But some Catholics have railed against it due to its depiction of Papal rivals spreading nasty rumours about each other, such as one cardinal in the film having a secret love child.
Writer Christina Sorrentino called it “blasphemous” and said it “mocks the Church”.
With Pope Francis gravely ill in hospital, Academy voters might decide against choosing a movie which could upset the world’s 1.4billion Catholics.
This has left The Substance being touted as a possible victor.
It would be the first horror movie to win since The Silence Of The Lambs in 1992.
But the gory film, in which Demi Moore, 62, appears fully naked, has split audience opinion, with its graphic scenes seeing some viewers walk out of the cinema.
For that reason, the odds on Timothee Chalamet’s relatively uncontroversial Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown have shortened.
One thing that will most likely stay constant at this year’s awards is that the most popular movies will not walk away with golden statuettes.
Neither Wicked, which has taken nearly £600million at the global box office, nor Dune Part II, which earned just a little less, are given much hope by the bookmakers.
But after this year’s debacle, the Oscars might finally come to show more appreciation for these much-loved mainstream movies.
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