Anora’s big night

It shouldn’t feel so surprising that Anora won so big at the Oscars, since it won the Palme d’Or last year and cleaned up at the PGA, DGA, and WGA awards earlier this year, indicating strong support from the guilds. But I really thought the Academy would spread the love more than they did, so my Oscar predictions were not so great. Not terrible, but I missed every short category and while I thought Sean Baker would win Best Original Screenplay—which he did—I didn’t call him for Best Editing or Best Directing, and despite her BAFTA win, I did not see Mikey Madison taking Best Actress. But she did, providing the biggest surprise of the night.

I have always said that when it comes to Best Actress, the Academy loves an icon and they love an ingenue, and this year, they opted for the ingenue over the icon. It’s not undeserving—Mikey Madison is great in Anora, even as her character becomes increasingly underwritten through the third act, she keeps it together with pure energy and screen presence (Emma Stone was previously rewarded for a similar feat in La La Land). It’s a memorable breakout role, and as much as the Academy is loath to crown a handsome young man, they LOVE to reward young women in breakout roles. Mikey Madison is an Oscar winner three weeks shy of her 26th birthday (while wearing Dior and vintage Tiffany diamonds).

Sean Baker, meanwhile, is now a four-time Academy Award winner. He won all four categories for which he was nominated, including Best Picture, which he shares with his fellow producers Samantha Quan—who is also his wife and creative partner—and Alex Coco. (Fun fact: no single person has won Best Picture since Al Ruddy won for The Godfather in 1973.) Honestly? I really missed not having the ACE Eddie Awards before the Oscars this year. If it turns out Sean Baker wins there, where he is nominated for Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy, Theatrical), I think I would have read the tea leaves better and been more on Team Anora going into the Oscars.

Best Editing is traditionally the best bellwether for Best Picture, though since the Best Picture field expanded to 10, it has been less reliable. This year, though, Best Editor and Best Picture did, indeed, go hand-in-hand, capping off Anora’s run from Cannes to Oscar. As the Best Picture winners emphasized, this was a tiny budgeted, truly independent film that managed to make it all the way to the Oscars.

 

Indie film is struggling mightily right now, so Anora winning as big as it did is important to the overall health of the industry. Box office helps, but so do trophies, because those help get the next generation of films greenlit (Baker himself once benefitted from a single Independent Spirit Award nomination, which helped finance a film after he went broke financing his film Prince of Broadway).

That’s why the Oscars always matter, no matter how they’ve declined in television viewership—along with everything else on TV except certain live sporting events like the Super Bowl—they remain important to the film industry. Anora winning Best Picture, never mind picking up four other prizes, too, can help boost indie filmmaking as it spurs more investment in productions, and more studios to pick up indies at film markets—perhaps some studios will make calls about the many films still available after a depressed Sundance market. A rising tide lifts all boats, after all.

As for Mikey Madison, her Cinderella win will undoubtedly inspire another generation of actresses. It’s also notable that she thanked sex workers in her speech—as did Sean Baker—which might end up being Anora’s real legacy, supporting sex work as work and de-titillating sex work in cinema.

 

Madison hasn’t announced her next project, but I anticipate a massive career upswing, not unlike Austin Butler saw after Elvis. In hindsight, Quentin Tarantino really nailed the casting of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, picking two future Oscar nominees for Manson family roles. What’s next, a Dakota Fanning renaissance?