Film awards: A magic weekend as Anora gathers pace ahead of the Oscars
Director Sean Baker’s Anora received warm praise this past weekend.
A Best Picture win at the Critics Choice Awards plus top prizes at the Director and Producers Guild of America awards ceremonies marked a magic weekend for the Palme d'Or winner.
Film News Blitz’s David Bason writes why Anora is now poised for Oscars glory.
What is Anora about?
Anora, written and directed by Baker, follows the story of Mikey Madison’s Ani, a Brooklyn sex worker whose life is changed upon meeting the son of a Russian oligarch, Vanya, played by Mark Eydelshteyn.
Once news of their impulsive marriage reaches Russia, Vanya’s family threatens the young duo’s budding romance with the prospect of annulment.
The film premiered on May 21 last year at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the coveted Palme d’Or and quickly became a critics’ favourite.
A 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes cements Anora’s place among the most celebrated films of 2024.
Madison’s leading performance is often cited as a particular highlight.
Anora’s big weekend
Anora started the weekend winning one of its seven Critics Choice nominations, but it was the biggest prize that came the way of Baker’s film: Best Picture.
Next came the Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America awards ceremonies, which were scheduled so that the Anora team could attend both events on Saturday night in Los Angeles.
Baker won the DGA’s big prize of Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film before winning the PGA’s Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures with his fellow producers Lex Coco and Samantha Quan.
What this means for the Oscars
As a result of its prize-winning weekend, the statistics show that Anora is well in the hunt for snatching the Best Director and Best Picture Prizes at this year’s Oscars.
Baker features stiff competition for Best Director with Brady Corbet hotly tipped for success thanks to his work on The Brutalist which is also a frontrunner in the Best Picture race alongside Netflix’s Emilia Perez, although the latter has hit troubled water thanks to recently resurfaced tweets of Karla Sofía Gascón which included hateful comments regarding the Muslim community and the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Working in Baker and Anora’s favour is the fact that 25 of the past 34 PGA Theatrical Motion Picture victors went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
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As well as this, 19 of the DGA’s past 22 Theatrical Feature winners have gone on to clinch the Academy Award for Best Director.
In total, Anora has been nominated for six Oscars with Baker receiving noms in the Original Screenplay and Editing categories.
In addition, Madison has been nominated for her starring role and supporting actor Yura Borisov has received deserved recognition.
On March 2 the world will find out whether past statistics will work in Anora’s favour.
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