Karla Sofía Gascón makes Oscars history as first trans woman nominated for acting

After blazing a trail for LGBTQ representation throughout the 2025 awards season, Emilia Perez actress Karla Sofia Gascón is making Oscars history as the first openly trans woman to receive a nomination in an acting category.

The 52-year-old Spanish performer scored her first Oscar nomination on Thursday morning for Best Actress, and secured a place in history in the process as no other openly trans woman has been nominated in the category — or any other acting category — across the Academy Awards’ 96-year history.

Gascón landed her nomination for her leading role in Jacques Audiard‘s musical thriller Emilia Perezwhich follows the titular former cartel leader (Gascón) who enlists the help of a hard-working lawyer (Zoe Saldana) to assist her transition into a new phase of life in contemporary Mexico. The nod follows her history-making journey through awards season, which began at Cannes in May 2024, where she also made history as the first openly trans woman to win Best Actress at the French festival — a prize she shared with costars Saldaña, Selena Gomezand Adriana Paz.

“I think there’s a lot of people that identify with the film and that feel a lot of wonder for it. So far in all the festivals, the comments have been very positive, but I remain cautious because I know that there’s a lot of people that have issue with my lifestyle and that will try to dim or take down everything that we’ve built,” Gascón previously told Entertainment Weekly of the movie. “But they will not be able to.”

While Gascón is he first openly trans woman to be nominated for any acting Oscar she is not the first trans person with an acting Oscar nod to their credit. Before coming out as trans in 2020, Elliot Page competed as a lead performer in the category for his work in the 2007 movie Juno. Trans people who’ve been nominated for Oscars in other categories include Anohni (Best Original Song), Yance Ford (Best Documentary), Angela Morley (in the defunct Best Music, Original Song Score or Adaptation category).

Many cisgender stars have either won or been nominated for Oscars for playing trans characters, including Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry), and Felicity Huffman (Transamerica), among others.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly about his role in the recent film Close to YouPage revealed that he’d like to see gender-neutral acting categories at the Oscars, similar to how other groups (like the Film Independent Spirit Awards) have done in the past.

“Yeah, it seems like a good idea,” the actor said when asked about the proposition. “And, again, this sort of unusual aspect of that being the only category, right, where that sort of happens? So, hopefully, we start moving beyond that degree of binary thinking.”

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Gascón is nominated for Best Actress alongside strong competition from the likes of Mikey Madison (Anora), Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), and current category frontrunner Demi Moore (The Substance).

The 2025 Oscars air Sunday, March 2 on ABC, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, with the official red carpet presentation beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT, with Conan O’Brien set to make his Academy Awards hosting debut across the telecast.