Anora Wins Big at the Oscars, Securing Best Picture

Anora took home Best Picture, along with four other Oscars, at the Academy Awards.

Director Sean Baker claimed Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director, in addition to Best Picture. Lead actress Mickey Madison won Best Actress.

Produced by Neon with just a $6 million budget, Anora tells the story of a young woman from Brooklyn who meets a man at the strip club she works at. She later discovers that he is the son of a Russian oligarch. The film covers the ebbs and flows of their relationship in the midst of familial conflict. 

Upon receiving the Best Picture award, producer Alex Coco expressed, “We made this movie independently. If you’re trying to make independent films please keep doing it. We need more. This is proof.” 

“To all of the dreamers and the young filmmakers out there, tell the stories you want to tell, tell the stories that move you. I promise you, you will never regret it,” added producer Samantha Quan. 

Anora’s Best Picture win is no surprise to many. The film has acquired several accolades including the Producers Guild of America’s top feature film award. This honor historically predicted the Oscars’ Best Picture winner, as the two organizations share voting members. In the past ten years, seven films have won both awards. 

Baker secured a total of four awards for Anora, making him the person to receive the most Oscars for one project in one year. The only other person to win four Oscars in one year was Walt Disney in 1954; however, he won them for different projects. 

Baker dedicated his Best Director speech to advocating for the struggling movie-going experience. He voiced, “Watching a film in a theater with an audience is an experience. We can laugh together, cry together, scream in fright together, perhaps even sit in devastated silence together. And in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever.”

Among all the records Anora has set, the film has the lowest domestic ticket sales in Best Picture history (outside of the pandemic). Baker urges audiences to keep going to theaters and calls on production companies, especially independents, to release their films on the big screen.

Baker ends his Best Picture speech by declaring, “Long live independent film!”