Zoe Saldaña’s Best Supporting Actress win at the Academy Awards was not a surprise. It was the final stop in what was an awards-season sweep any actor dreams of accomplishing, and her tears throughout have shown how meaningful the awards are for her as a Latinx woman. But the shallowness of her Oscars acceptance speech followed by a prickly defensiveness over criticisms of her film, Emilia Perez, dampened her message.

Written and directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, Emilia Peréz is a high-concept musical that follows beleaguered Mexican lawyer Rita Mora Castro (played by Saldaña), who is coercively appointed to oversee the transition of brutal cartel kingpin Juan “Manitas” Del Monte into the titular Emilia, played by trans Spanish actress Karla Sofia Gascón.