The narco-musical ''Emilia Perez'' won Best European Film at Spain's equivalent of the Oscars on Saturday, following a backlash sparked by social media posts from the movie's star during awards season.
The film, primarily in Spanish, centers on a Mexican drug cartel leader who transitions into a woman and leaves her criminal past behind.
Before the controversy, it had won four Golden Globes in January and received multiple awards at the Cannes Film Festival last year. It also made history with 13 Oscar nominations, a record for a foreign-language film.
Old social media posts by ''Emilia Perez'' star Karla Sofia Gascon, in which she made derogatory remarks about Islam, China, and George Floyd, sparked a scandal that damaged her reputation and the film's Oscar prospects.
Voting for the Goya Awards closed on January 24, just days before the posts resurfaced and went viral.
At the ceremony in Granada, ''Emilia Perez'' triumphed over films like the British-Polish ''The Zone of Interest'', Latvia�s ''Flow'', Italy�s ''La Chimera'', and France�s ''The Count of Monte Cristo''.
Gascon, who lives near Madrid, did not attend the event, and the award was accepted by the film�s Spanish distributor.
The 52-year-old actress is the first transgender woman to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress and had been seen as the frontrunner before the controversy.
Gascon has apologized for her posts, claiming she is �not a racist.�
Hollywood trade sources reported that Netflix, which had pinned hopes on the film for its first Best Picture Oscar win, dropped Gascon from the promotional campaign and distanced itself from her.
The film�s French director, Jacques Audiard, condemned the posts as "inexcusable" and "absolutely hateful."
Even before the social media controversy, the musical thriller faced criticism for its portrayal of both Mexico and the transgender community.
Thousands of Mexicans have rated the film the lowest possible scores on online review sites like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, where it currently holds an audience rating of just 18 percent.
Mexican author Jorge Volpi described the film as "one of the crudest and most misleading films of the 21st century."
The GLAAD advocacy group, which tracks LGBTQ+ representation in U.S. media, criticized the film as a "profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman."
