Emilia Pérez was already the villain of the 2025 Oscars, but songwriter and French singer Camille Dalmais didn’t help her film’s reputation when she started singing, unprompted, during her acceptance speech for Best Original Song.
The award was for the song “El Mal,” sung by Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofia Gascon in the film, and was accepted by its writers: Camille (as she commonly goes by), composer Clément Ducol, and director Jacques Audiard. The accpetance speech started out normal enough, with Camille thanking the Academy. “We wrote ‘El Mal’ to denounc corruption, and we hope it speaks to the role music and art can play as a force of the good and progress in the world.”
Then Ducol rattled off the customary thank yous to the producers, studios, and families. It was only at the very end when Camille pushed her way back to the mic, and made things weird.
“And thank you to Emilia, Emilia Perez,” Camille began singing in a high, operatic voice. Her co-writer Ducol timidly joined in, but it was clear this bit was not his idea. But Camille just kept going. “Emilia, Emiiiiiiiiliiiiiiaaaaaaa!“
In the background, Audiard looks distinctly uncomfortable, and joked “Please wrap,” while Camille sings. And, ironically, the orchestra started playing the songwriters off as soon as they began to sing.
Predictably, viewers at home wasted no time in razzing the songwriters on social media for this, shall we say, interesting choice.
“Okay that was the most cringe worthy acceptance speech ever,” wrote one user on BlueSky.
“The cutaways to the cringing audience during that Emilia Perez sing song acceptance speech was priceless,” wrote another.
“When the Emilia Perez songwriters started singing their own song during their acceptance speech,” tweeted an X user, along with a photo of John Lithgow looking disappointed. (Which is something host Conan O’Brien had joked about earlier in the night.)
All we can say is: Yikes!
Written and directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez nabbed more Oscar nominations than any other movie this year. The story follows Mexican named lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), who agrees to help a notorious drug cartel leader named Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón) secretly transition to a new life as a woman named Emilia (also Gascón, who is a trans woman). Earlier in the night, Saldaña took home the statue for Best Supporting Actress. Thankfully, she did not sing during her acceptance speech.