The worst Oscar nominated for the best 2025 film, according to Rotten Tomatoes

We are in full awards season with the Golden Globes behind us and, more importantly, the Academy Awards just around the corner. Recently, Oscar 2025 nominations were announced and now we know what movies they will compete for the coveted award for best film. That list includes several favorites of critics such as “The Brutalist” and “Anora”, and also presents a couple of surprises, perhaps the most notable Mubi’s body horror film “The Substance.” But one of the nominees is not like others, because it is not at all a favorite of criticism.

“Emilia Pérez” by Netflix has the worst general critical approval index in Rotten Tomatoes of the ten films nominated for best film in the Oscar this year. At the time of writing this article, it has an approval index of around 76% by critics on the site, with 237 reviews counted. More surprisingly, it has an abysmal approval of the audience of 34%, which suggests that many average spectators did not care what the writer and director Jacques Audiard had to offer with it. To contextualize, here is the complete list of the best film of 2025 along with their respective RT score.

For those who are not, “Emilia Pérez” tells the trip of four women in Mexico, each of whom seeks their own happiness. The fearsome leader of the Emilia poster (Karla Sofía Gascón) recruits Rita (Zoe Saldaña), a little appreciated lawyer caught in a job without a future, to help pretend her death so that Emilia can finally complete her gender transformation and live authentically as His true self. Selena Gómez, Adriana Paz and Edgar Ramírez also star.

The film not only obtained a best film nomination, but also leads all other competition films with a total of 13 nominations, including one for Zoe Saldaña, better known for their work in large science fiction franchises such as “Avatar” and “Guardians of the Galaxy”, who is first nominated in the category of best cast actress. Unless Netflix has a disappointing night in general, at least a couple of important awards will probably be taken. This could bother enough people.

Jeremy Mathai described “Emilia Pérez” of 2024 as “The greatest swing and Miss” in his review for /film out of New York Film Festival. It has been a mixture of things, no doubt. More than that, he has been frankly controversial, but has managed to become a true favorite of the awards season. In particular, the film has been questioned by its representation of Mexico and the lack of Mexican actors or filmmakers. Its director, Jacques Audiard, is French. None of the main actors are of Mexican descent.

In an interview with DeadlineThe director of “Pedro Páramo”, Rodrigo Prieto, said he was “discontent because the film was not shot in Mexico” before adding that “all this is completely false.” The lively musical drama and Netflix drug cartels has also been criticized for its representation of the transgender community. BURIALFor example, they published an article in November saying that the film “was not a good trans representation” and at the same time denounced what they labeled as a “deeply retrograde representation of a trans woman.”

There are more nuances in this situation than this particular piece can offer the film and the discussion about it, but at least it is worth understanding that this film is not even close to being universally loved. Despite that, “Emilia Pérez” is now a serious candidate for the Oscars and it is likely that many more people will see her now that she has accumulated several important nominations before the most important night in Hollywood.

The 97th Annual Ceremony of the Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 2, 2025 in ABC.