Two weeks ago, Netflix’s chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, strutted across the stage of the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles and crowed about the company’s 13 Oscar nominations for its Spanish-language musical, “Emilia Pérez.”
“We just received more Oscar nominations than any other studio,” she boasted.
Finally the most coveted prize, the Academy Award for best picture, which had eluded the streaming giant, seemed within its grasp.
How fleeting that moment would prove to be.
Just three days later, Netflix was releasing an apology on behalf of the film’s lead actress, Karla Sofía Gascón — the first openly trans actor to be nominated for an Academy Award — after a journalist resurfaced a series of derogatory comments Ms. Gascón had posted years ago on Twitter, now known as X. In them, she denigrated an array of people, from Muslims to George Floyd, and even the Oscars.
The streaming giant has one of the largest global awards operations in the business. Under the guidance of Lisa Taback, a leading Oscar strategist who cut her teeth in the rough and tumble campaign era of Harvey Weinstein, the company employs around 60 people dedicated to promoting their movies and shows for various awards shows, including the Oscars, the Emmys and the BAFTAs in Britain.
But instead of playing offense, Netflix now finds itself trying to limit the fallout, and save the chances for nominees like Zoe Saldaña, who is up for best supporting actress for her role in the film.
The company has removed Ms. Gascón from billboards around Los Angeles that featured her alone (she remains in some group ads) and in email blasts to Oscar voters. During a trio of awards shows over the weekend, Ms. Saldaña carried the film’s torch, accepting the Critics’ Choice Award for best supporting actress and calling her film, “the little movie that could.”
On Saturday, Ms. Saldaña hopscotched with the film’s director, Jacques Audiard, from the Directors Guild of America Awards, where she introduced the film, to the Producers Guild Awards just down the street, where she did it again. Ms. Gascón had initially been set to introduce the film with Ms. Saldaña.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a situation like this, where a movie’s destiny has shifted like an asteroid hit it,” Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University’s film school, said in an interview.
Netflix declined to comment.
At first, Netflix’s team was hopeful that Ms. Gascón’s contrite apology would quell the noise, according to two people with knowledge of discussions inside the company. Ms. Gascón had other plans. On Wednesday she penned a long missive on Instagram saying that the posts had been taken out of context. She then appeared on CNN en Español for a tearful hourlong interview where she said she would not withdraw from the Oscar race.
Netflix didn’t know about either promotion until they were public, said the two people with knowledge of discussions inside the company. Ms. Gascón could not be reached for comment for this article. In a post on Instagram on Thursday she wrote: “hoping my silence will allow the film to be appreciated for what it is, a beautiful ode to love and difference.”
Netflix continues to spend money on its other “Emilia Pérez” stars and its director, but the company didn’t offer to pay for Ms. Gascón’s flights for this past weekend, said three people with knowledge of the decision. She had been scheduled to appear in Southern California for a litany of events: the American Film Institute luncheon, the Critics’ Choice Awards, where she was nominated; the Producers Guild Awards; and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which had intended to give her an award along with her co-star Selena Gomez and others.
When Ms. Taback joined Netflix in 2018 with her team of four employees, it was to scale up the tech company’s Hollywood aspirations. (She had already worked with the company to win its first Oscar, the best documentary short for “The White Helmets.”) With a hefty salary and seemingly unlimited resources, Ms. Taback often outspent her competitors in extravagant ways. (Renting out two soundstages for a museum-style exhibit that showed off the costumes for “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón’s black-and-white drama, was one such example.)
The company’s nominations are always greater than its wins, but the resources invested over the past seven years have helped lure filmmakers to the streaming giant, especially those concerned about the company’s reluctance to debut its films theatrically. And it has worked, to an extent.
“Hollywood doesn’t understand what makes Netflix work. It’s not Academy Awards. It’s the algorithm,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst and partner at the media research firm LightShed Partners. “Awards are to appease the Hollywood system. If I were Netflix, I’d spend twice as much.”
Martin Scorsese, Bradley Cooper, Jane Campion, David Fincher and Noah Baumbach have all brought their passion projects to the service. In some cases it was because the films were either not commercial enough or were too expensive to get made at traditional studios, but also because they would be taken care of at Netflix.
“Netflix guaranteed my complete freedom in terms of putting together my team and the final cut privilege, which only godlike filmmakers such as Spielberg get,” Mr. Scorsese said in 2019 about his 3 ½ hour film “The Irishman,” which was nominated for 10 Oscars. It won zero.
“Emilia Pérez” was a bit different. Netflix, at the behest of its new film chairman, Dan Lin, bought the U.S., Canadian and British rights to the finished film out of the Cannes Film Festival last year for $8 million. (The cast, including Ms. Gascón, Ms. Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, who won the festival’s best actress award.) To many, acquiring 13 Oscar nominations for a Spanish language musical starring a trans actress with a French director that few Netflix subscribers have watched is a feat unto itself.
Setting Ms. Gascón’s controversy aside, those inside the company say they don’t expect its awards strategy to change. Money will still be spent. Events will still be extravagant.
There will, of course, be one alteration: The social media accounts of anyone Netflix is considering partnering with will be looked at much more closely.
