The 2025 Academy Awards are generating buzz ahead of Sunday’s star-studded affair—not only for the standout nominees, but for the conversations surrounding them.

From accusations over blackface to debates over artificial intelligence and the role of intimacy coordinators, this year’s Oscars have sparked widespread conversations inside and outside Hollywood.

Karla Sofía Gascón Controversy

Karla Sofía Gascón, the star of Oscar-nominated film Emilia Pérez and the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for an Academy Award, has faced backlash over resurfaced tweets of her making inflammatory remarks against various minority groups.

On January 30, journalist Sarah Hagi shared screenshots of several posts from the screen star’s X, formerly Twitter, account. In the screenshots, Gascón criticized Islam, made controversial comments on the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, referenced Adolf Hitler, and likened the 2021 Oscars show to “a Black Lives Matter demonstration.”

Gascón, 52, has apologized for the controversial posts. On her now-defunct X account, she wrote: “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”

Actress Karla Sofia Gascon at a press conference to promote the film “Emilia Perez” in Mexico City on January 15, 2025. AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo
She also apologized for her comments in a separate, hourlong interview with CNN En Espanol.

Despite the controversy, Netflix has agreed to cover Gascón’s expenses for attending the awards show, according to Variety. Emilia Pérez is the most nominated film at this year’s Oscars, with 13 nods.

Blackface Controversy

Actress Fernanda Torres, nominated for I’m Still Here, was at the center of controversy after a 2008 Brazilian comedy sketch resurfaced showing her in blackface.

Torres, who nabbed a Golden Globe for Best Performance By an Actress in a Film Drama, apologized for the skit, which aired on the Brazilian TV show Fantastico.

Torres apologized in a statement, Deadline reported, where she said that she had not fully understood the implications of blackface at the time, given Brazil’s cultural landscape in 2008.

“At that time, despite the efforts of Black movements and organizations, the awareness of the racist history and symbolism of blackface hadn’t yet entered the mainstream public consciousness in Brazil,” Torres said. “Thanks to better cultural understanding and important but incomplete achievements in this century, it’s very clear now in our country and everywhere that blackface is never acceptable.”

While some voters and industry figures have dismissed the controversy as outdated, others have criticized the Academy for continuing to celebrate figures with questionable pasts.

Intimacy Coordinator Allegations

The Oscar-nominated film Anora has also drawn criticism after its lead actress, Mikey Madison, revealed that she and co-star Mark Eydelshteyn chose to film intimate scenes without the guidance of an intimacy coordinator, a role that has become increasingly standard in the industry.

The movie tells the story of a young sex worker who embarks on a romance with the son of an oligarch. The relationship goes south when his parents find out.

Madison defended the decision, saying, “We decided that it would be best just to keep it small. We were able to streamline it, shoot it super quickly,” Boston.com reported.

“For our film, we didn’t,” Madison said, as previously reported by Newsweek. “It was a choice that I made that the filmmakers offered to me if I wanted to bring on an intimacy coordinator or not.”

The revelation sparked debate among some industry professionals about whether actors should have the right to decline such oversight or whether industrywide standards should be enforced.

Jessica Steinrock, CEO of Intimacy Coordinators and Directors Inc., told Variety: “When framed as ‘Do you want this support or not?,’ it makes sense to me that someone might opt out because they personally do not feel the need for additional advocacy or support, not fully recognizing how the role also supports others on set.”

AI Controversy

Artificial intelligence has also made its way into the Oscars controversies, with The Brutalist facing scrutiny after some people online claimed it used AI-assisted voice alterations.

The film’s director, Brady Corbet countered the claims when he told The Hollywood Reporter that technology was not used to change the actors’ performances.

“[The actors] worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed,” Corbet said.

The film’s star, Adrien Brody, also downplayed its implementation. During a recent appearance on Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast, he said it was only used to tweak some of his lines: “I understand that we live in a time where even just the mention of AI is a bit triggering…Obviously, [filmmaker Brady Corbet’s] post-production process only touched some lines spoken in Hungarian. Nothing of the dialect was altered.”

In 2023, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists put forth new guidelines on usage of AI in TV an theater. The studio’s use of generative AI was one of the issues to be resolved in the SAG-AFTRA strike, which concluded that year.

With these controversies hanging over the ceremony, the 2025 Oscars could be as much about the debates surrounding the nominees as about the awards themselves. But whether these disputes will affect the Academy Award winners remains to be seen