Worst Best Picture Oscar Nominee of 2025, according to Rotten Tomatoes

We're fully into awards season with the Golden Globes behind us and, more importantly, the Academy Awards just around the corner. The 2025 Oscar nominations were recently announced And now we know which films will compete for the coveted Best Picture award. This list includes several critical darlings like “Brutalist” and “Anora” and there are a couple of surprises too – perhaps most notably Mubi's body horror flick “substance”. But one of the candidates is not like the others because it is by no means a critical favorite.

Netflix's “Emilia Pérez” has the worst overall critical approval rating of the ten Rotten Tomatoes nominees for best picture at the Oscars this year. As of this writing, it has the same 76% approval rating from critics on the site, with 237 reviews counted. More surprisingly, it has a wicked 34% audience approval, suggesting that quite a few average viewers didn't care about what writer/director Jacques Audiard had to offer with this one. For context, here's the full list of Best Picture 2025 nominees, along with their respective RT scores.

For those who may not be familiar, “Emilia Pérez” follows the journey of four women in Mexico, each making their own fortune. Fearful cartel leader Emily (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an underrated lawyer stuck in a dead end, to help fake her death so Emily can finally complete her gender transition and live authentically as her true self. Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Edgar Ramírez also star.

In addition to winning Best Picture, the film swept all other competing films with a total of 13 nominations, including one for Zoe Saldaña, Best known for his work in major sci-fi franchises such as Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy, a first-time nominee for Best Actress. Unless Netflix is ​​in for a disappointing night overall, it will probably walk away with at least a couple of major awards. That could rub quite a few people the wrong way.

Jeremy Mathai called “Emilia Pérez” the “biggest swing and miss” of 2024 in her review / movie From the New York Film Festival. It's been a mixed bag to be sure. Plus, it's been downright controversial, yet it's managed to become a bona fide awards season favorite. In particular, the film has been criticized for its portrayal of Mexico and its 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 Deadline“Pedro Páramo” director Rodrigo Prieto said he was “unhappy that the movie wasn't shot in Mexico,” before adding “the whole thing is completely inauthentic.” Netflix's buzzy, musical/drug cartel drama has also come under fire for its representation of the transgender community. Burialfor example, published a piece in November saying the film was not a “good representation of trans,” while also calling out what they labeled a “deeply retrograde depiction of trans women.”

There's more nuance to this situation than this particular piece can afford in the film and discussion surrounding it, but at least it's worth understanding that this film isn't even close to being mainstream. Regardless, “Emilia Pérez” is now a serious contender at the Oscars, and quite a few more people are likely to check it out now that I've snagged several major nods ahead of Hollywood's biggest night.

The 97th Annual Academy Awards air on Sunday, March 2, 2025, on ABC.