Strip club Cinderella story ‘Anora’ crowned best picture at 97th Academy Awards

In a stubbornly fluctuating Oscar season, “Anora,” the Palme d'Or-winner at the Cannes Film Festival, emerged as the unlikely frontrunner

Los Angeles: “Anora,” a strip club Cinderella story without the fairy tale ending, was crowned best picture at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, handing Sean Baker’s gritty, Brooklyn-set screwball farce Hollywood’s top prize.

In a stubbornly fluctuating Oscar season, “Anora,” the Palme d’Or-winner at the Cannes Film Festival, emerged as the unlikely frontrunner. Baker’s tale of an erotic dancer who elopes with the son of a Russian oligarch – unusually explicit for a best-picture winner – was made for just USD 6 million.

---

But Oscar voters, eschewing blockbuster contenders like “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two,” instead added “Anora” to a string of recent indie best picture winners, including “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “CODA” and “Nomadland.” For a film industry that’s been transformed by streaming and humbled by economic turmoil, Baker and “Anora” epitomised a kind of cinematic purity. On the campaign trail, Baker called for the return to the 90-day exclusive theatrical release.

“Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater,” Baker said Sunday. “Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen.” In personally winning four Oscars on Sunday, Baker tied the mark held by Walt Disney, who won for four different films in 1954. That Baker and Disney share the record is ironic; his “The Florida Project” took place in a Florida low-budget motel in the shadow of Disneyland.

“Long live independent film!” shouted Baker from the Dolby Theatre stage.

Twenty-two years after winning best actor for “The Pianist,” Adrien Brody won the same Oscar again for his performance as another Holocaust survivor in Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.” Brody’s win came over Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), who had the chance of becoming the youngest best actor ever, a record owned by Brody – just short of 30 when he won for “The Pianist.” “I’m here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of antisemitism and racism and othering,” said Brody. “I pray for a healthier and happier and more inclusive world. If the past can teach us anything it’s to not let hate go unchecked.”

Mikey Madison won best actress for her breakthrough performance in “Anora,” a victory that came over the category favorite, Demi Moore (“The Substance”).

Sean Baker, the filmmaker of “Anora,” won best director, best original screenplay and best editing. Baker used his acceptance speech for best director to preach passionately for the theatrical experience.