Transgender Emilia Perez star Karla Sofía Gascón has scored a BAFTA nomination for lead actress — another bellwether of an increasingly likely Academy Award nomination for the breakout star who is a man who identifies as a woman.
On Wednesday, Karla Sofía Gascón earned a BAFTA nod for lead actress for Netflix’s Emilia Perez, a transgender-narco musical in which Gascón plays a drug boss who undergoes a sex-change operation to become a “woman.” The movie received a total of 11 nominations for the U.K.’s biggest movie awards, just behind the 12 received by another awards-season favorite, Conclave.
Gascón’s BAFTA nod marks the first time an openly transgender performer has received a nomination from the British Academy. The ceremony is set for February 16 at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
In addition to the BAFTA nod, Gascón is also up for a Screen Actors Guild award after having received and lost a Golden Globe nomination — all for lead actress. The performer already won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, shared with co-stars Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, and Adriana Paz.
Gascón was born a male and didn’t transition until relatively late in life, having already fathered a child.
If Gascón receives an Oscar nomination, it would mark the first time in Oscar history that a trans performer has been nominated in any acting category.
The announcement of the Oscar nominations have been postponed due to the raging Los Angeles fires, with a newly announced date of January 23.
As Breitbart News reported, Emilia Perez is the subject of intense backlash against Mexican moviegoers and critics who believe the French-produced musical trivializes the mass death caused by the drug war in that country.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at
