Few films have provoked as much in Mexico as Jacques Audiard's musical Emilia Pérez. Its official presentation in October 2024 at the Morelia International Film Festival had hardly triggered any reactions in the country, but since the film won four awards at the Golden Globes on January 5, then racked up 13 Academy Award nominations on January 23, the controversy has been continuously growing.

Mexicans have been criticizing the film for many things, and have found a host of details that do not reflect their reality and their country, right from the very first scene: "No one uses a laptop in the night markets, as Zoe Saldana does, or prints documents in a street market," wrote  journalist Sofia Otero in the feminist magazine Volcanicas. She noted many errors, such as the lawyer's degree from a university that doesn't exist in Mexico or the representation of the Mexican judicial system, which is a copy of an American court.

"The metal recycling truck never comes at night," said film critic Gaby Meza, who also said the lack of Mexican advisors explains this clumsiness. The same comment was made by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain, The Wolf of Wall Street), who finds it "problematic" that Emilia Pérez was not shot in Mexico (the film was shot in the Bry-sur-Marne studios in the Paris region), nor did it involve any Mexicans in its production. "The film reflects poorly on Mexico and its people, and that doesn't seem to matter to Audiard," Prieto said in an interview with Deadline magazine.

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