I can’t lie — I rarely agree with the Oscars. With its long history of bad choices and infamous snubs, I tend to avoid watching it altogether. However, last year’s lineup was too good to ignore. Films like “I’m Still Here”, “Flow” and Golden Globe sweeper “The Brutalist” made for an unforgettable season. Still, out of all nominees for best picture, I never expected Sean Baker to break a record Walt Disney once set — winning a total of five Oscars in one night.
This Oscar season was beyond chaotic: “Emilia Perez” flopped both as a movie and a campaign, and Adrien Brody’s horrific Oscars speech, where he broke records for lengthiest speech while also cutting off the orchestra. The biggest surprise was Anora’s five-Oscar achievement.
Sean Baker has always been known for his hard-hitting films on poverty, immigration and sex work, whether it’s his 2008 bittersweet “Prince of Broadway”, which follows a New York street hustler’s life shifts when he discovers a baby he never thought he had, or what was his most notable film with A24, “The Florida Project”. “The Florida Project” was a vibrant, heartbreaking look at childhood on the fringes of “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Baker’s use of non-professional actors gave the film a raw, documentary-like feel. His work captures life on the margins. His 2024 film, “Anora,” continues this tradition in a far more refined way, with an American prostitute facing stigma and disillusionment, this time featuring a far larger budget and more smooth, brighter visuals.
When “Anora” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, it was a huge achievement. The Palme d’Or at Cannes is the highest prize awarded at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, given to the best film in competition. Only a select few films win this prestigious award. Past winners include Scorsese, Gus Van Sant and Justine Triet, who won for last year’s “Anatomy of a Fall.”
Anora’s trailer comes off as a “Pretty Woman-style love story between Anora or Ani Mikheeva (Mikey Madison), an American sex worker, and Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. Set to Blondie’s “Dreaming,” the trailer suggests frantic action — wrecking a candy store and a fraudulent marriage. But at its core, “Anora” captured something way more unsettling a nightmare many women face in the real world: marrying a mama’s boy.
The first half of the film follows Anora, more frequently called Ani, and the childish Vanya in their Vegas marriage. The second half shifts to a chase between Vanya and his godfather Toros and two other men — Igor and Garnik — as they seek an annulment of their marriage. Anora is caught in the middle as Vanya runs off without her. She watches him return to the club, drunk with another woman. She grows tired of trying to defend him. I found the chase scenes comedic and thrilling; although somewhat slowly paced, I couldn’t complain about the chemistry between Ani and the men chasing Vanya.
Vanya’s mother, Galina (Darya Ekamasova), is terrifying and cruelly blames Ani for Vanya’s actions. In her overbearing presence, Vanya shifts from a fun-loving rich kid to a spineless man-child. Their marriage is annulled in Vegas, and the film ends with Ani and Igor returning to the Zakharov home for the final day. Anora then moves back to her old house with her roommate, where a brief, desperate spark forms between Ani and Igor. The ending of Anora is devastating, there is no real release of tension from the plot. It is devastating to witness Ani’s reactions as her brief love story fully dissipates.
Mikey Madison (Anora) is a powerhouse in her role, delivering a raw and captivating performance. Her portrayal is a masterclass in emotion, blending the vulnerability and strength of a character not just defined by her professional life. The supporting cast, including Mark Eydelshteyn and Yuri Borisov, provide great contrasts as love interests, while the Zakharov family and their henchmen offer a mix of villainy and comic relief. This cast is a part of a new generation of actors, and while well-seasoned actors like Adrien Brody and Demi Moore will always have a place in our hearts, this new wave of talent brings a fresh energy to the screen without the headliner fame.
“Anora’s” Oscar success is a win for not just Baker or Madison but a win for indie cinema and the daring representations that Baker has strived to achieve since day one. It covers key themes of exploitation and the stigma surrounding the career. It rehashes the ideal of a downtrodden waif or a subhuman projection of a sex worker, humanizing real people in these situations and critiquing those in pop culture who give currency to this outlook. By challenging the stereotypical portrayals often seen in mainstream media — where sex workers are reduced to tragic victims or villains, like in films such as “American Psycho” and its victims of Patrick Bateman and “Requiem for a Dream” and its portrayal of Marian Silver which paints sex work as a product of desperation and moral decay — it offers a more nuanced look into their lives. As the main character, Ani is a fully formed person with her own goals and aspirations.
Given the social climate, “Anora” could be the most relevant of the batch of Oscar nominees. Baker critiques the harmful ideologies that men project onto women, exposing the damaging stereotypes and unrealistic expectations placed on women within these power dynamics, where they are often reduced to mere objects of desire or tools for men’s validation.
During his Best Picture speech, Sean Baker stepped up to the microphone the final time and ended with a defiant line that I hope remains into 2025: “Long live independent film.” Anora is entirely independent, produced by Neon, who many know for Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite and David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future.” Independent cinema has been on the rise for years through A24 and Neon, in part due to the writers’ strike, when independent film could go on and live because the two companies paid their workers fairly. This is something I’m more than excited to see the outcome of — the fruits of a director’s labour. No more will we live in a time where you can only see blockbuster hits made to succeed by Universal and Walt Disney Studios. Now, we get to actually see something new.
Anora thoroughly deserves its surprising Oscar success. The film masterfully lets the characters’ emotions and performances take hold of the wheel. Its fearless criticisms of societal issues and stereotypes humanize an identity that many have failed. Mikey Madison’s performance lingers after the credits roll. Its unflinching look at toxic relationships and expectations from society makes it not only a standout in this year’s Oscar race but a defining movie of 2024.
