A little over nine and a half months after its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Sean Baker’s “Anora” has ascended to the mountaintop. A NEON release in the U.S., “Anora” took the Best Picture crown and won 3 other Oscars, including Best Director, Baker, Best Actress, Mikey Madison, Best Editing, Baker, and Original Screenplay, Baker. The movie won in, seemingly, one of the closest Best Picture races in years.
READ MORE: Mikey Madison is enjoying her breakout “Anora” ride
“Anora” is Baker’s eighth independent film and centers on the title character (Madison), a New York City sex worker who finds herself in the middle of a dangerous family squabble after a quicky marriage to Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch. The cast also includes Yura Borisov, who earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Aleksei Serebryakov, and Darya Ekamasova.
The winning producers include Baker, Alex Coco, and Samantha Quan.
Baker’s comedic thriller won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and became the fourth Palme winner to take Best Picture after Billy Wilder’s “The Lost Weekend,” Delbert Mann’s “Marty,” and Bong Joon-ho’s” Parasite.” It’s also, remarkably, the second Palme d’Or winner to take the prize in just five years. This year, there were three Cannes award winners nominated for Best Picture: Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” and “Anora.”
After “Parasite,” “Anora” became NEON’s second Best Picture winner in just eight years of existence. It took comparable distributors, A24 11 years, and Searchlight Films 20 years to pull that off. Sadly, and inexplicably, competitors Sony Pictures Classics and Focus Features are still looking for their first Best Picture champion. Netflix and Mubi are the only other nominated studios this year still waiting to take Oscar’s top prize.
“Anora” racked up a string of impressive accolades over the last few months. Baker won the top DGA Award and the WGA Award for Original Screenplay, while the movie took the coveted PGA Award for Theatrical Motion Picture. It dominated the Film Independent Spirit Awards, taking three honors, including Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Lead Performance, Madison. Based in Los Angeles, Baker saw a ton of love from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who voted it for Best Picture, Best Lead Performance (shared), and Best Supporting Performance (shared), Borisov. The movie also won a Casting award, and Madison took Best Actress at the 2025 BAFTA Awards.
With a reported production budget of just $6 million, “Anora” is also the biggest hit of Baker’s career, taking in $15 million in the U.S. and $38 million worldwide. At press time, it’s the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in the modern era, although it should easily surpass “Nomadland,” a pandemic release, in the weeks to come.
“Anora” is available on digital download services.