Jacques Audiard Compares His ‘Emilia Perez’ Oscar Experience To An “Open War”

Jacques Audiard is a bruised man. This year marked the first time that the acclaimed French filmmaker had a major Oscar contender, and I don’t think he ever wants to experience that again.

With “Emilia Perez,” Audiard was thrust into a never ending storm of controversy involving Mexican representation, trans depictions and, to make matters worse, his star’s unhinged past tweets being unearthed for public consumption.

“Emilia Pérez” ended up losing the Oscar for Best International Film, and that’s after months of punditry claiming it would win the category. The buzz started in May at Cannes, where it won two prizes, and then flattened by the fall. The controversies obviously played a major role in its losing the award.

This morning, Audiard was a guest on France Inter, the César-crowned filmmaker described his Oscar experience as being akin to an “open war”:

I had already been nominated for A Prophet, about ten years ago. It was hard, it was competitive. But they were Teddy Bears at the time! Today, [the Oscar campaign] has become an open war. An open war between producers, distributors, studios. And that's weary.

What Jacques Audiard regrets most is that the media-fueled controversies "make us lose sight of the objective, that is to say the cinema itself. We don't talk about cinema (during this campaign). You have to be ready to unleash the biggest filth against the other. It's not fair, but it's like that..."

I’m sure Audiard will bounce back. He remains a world renowned filmmaker who seems to consistently get invited in Cannes competition. However, if he had originally teased an “Emilia Perez” prequel, then you can forget about it. I doubt he’d want to go back to the world that led to all of this trauma.