Social media posts derail Oscar front-runners

The genre-bending musical crime drama “Emilia Perez” looked like the streaming service’s strongest shot yet at best picture.

Netflix’s hopes for claiming an Academy Award for best picture appear to have vanished after a series of embarrassing social media posts resurfaced.

The genre-bending musical crime drama “Emilia Perez” looked like the streaming service’s strongest shot yet at best picture after winning the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and garnering a total of 13 Academy Award nominations.

But prospects for the movie dimmed after a journalist found and translated a series of Spanish-language posts, dating from 2016 through 2020. In them, the film’s Spanish star, Karla Sofia Gascon, described Islam as a “hotbed of infection for humanity” and George Floyd as a “drug addict swindler.” Social media amplified the story to global proportions.

Gascon apologised, but the damage was done. “This is the year of somebody basically lighting themself on fire and taking their own movie down with them,” said veteran marketing executive Terry Press, who has worked on Oscar campaigns on behalf of directors Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and other Hollywood notables.

Gascon disappeared from the Hollywood awards circuit, though she has said she will attend the Oscars ceremony on Sunday.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Seemingly every film nominated for best picture this year has been embroiled in some controversy, said Michael Schulman, author of “Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat and Tears.”