NEW YORK — Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” is an Oscar contender unlike any other. It’s a musical, a trans parable, and a Mexico-set melodrama, all combined into one unique amalgamation by an international filmmaking team. And just as singularly, it’s a best picture front-runner that, it sometimes seems, no one likes.

Lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón has come under fire for old social media posts, the latest of several controversies facing Jacques Audiard’s movie