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Mikey Madison as Ani and Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan in ‘Anora’ (Courtesy of Neon)

Sean Baker’s Anora and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow lead the Film Independent Spirit Awards 2025 film nominees, with Shōgun topping the list of television nominees. On the film side, Anora and I Saw the TV Glow collected six nominations, followed by Didi with four and Janet Planet, The Apprentice, and Sing Sing with three.

Shōgun scored five Spirit Awards TV nominations, with Baby Reindeer and English Teacher earning four nominations each.

“Since we held our first ceremony in 1985 at a restaurant on La Cienega to last year’s show when viewers around the world joined us at the Santa Monica Beach to celebrate the work of so many artists, Film Independent has continued to support independent filmmakers and enable them to achieve their vision at every stage of their career,” stated Josh Welsh,...

This morning saw the announcements of the 40th edition of the Film Independent Spirit Awards. The big picture nominees include titles like the film festival darling The Substance, as well as Anora, which is getting high accolades for Mikey Madison‘s performance and Sean Baker’s writing and direction. A24 would naturally snag a ton of nominations that total a whopping 19. This beats last year’s 11-nomination count.

The Independent Spirit Awards will be taking place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, and is set to be held at Santa Monica beach. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant will return as the host. The in-person ceremony will be available to stream live on IMDb and Film Independent YouTube channels, and across other social platforms. You can find the full list of nominations, courtesy of Deadline, below.

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

Anora

Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan...

Am 22. Februar werden zum 40. Mal die Indenpendent Spirit Awards vergeben. Wie Jane Schoenbruns „I Saw the TV Glow“ ist auch Sean Bakers Palmengewiner „Anora” fünfmal nominiert worden.

Fünfmal für den Independent Spirit Award nominiert: Sean Bakers „Anora“ (Credit: Upi)

Bei den heute bekannt gegebenen Nominierungen für die 40. Independent Spirit Awards am 22. Februar 2025 haben sich Sean Bakers Palmengewinner „Anora” und Jane Schoenbruns „I Saw the TV Glow“ mit jeweils fünf Nennungen als die Favoriten herauskristallisiert.

Zum direkten Duell kommt es in der Kategorie Bester Film, wo außer dem Duo noch RaMell Ross „Nickel Boys“, Greg Kwedars „Sing Sing“ und Coralie Fargeats „The Substance“ nominiert sind sowie in der Kategorie Beste Regie, wo sich außerdem noch Ali Abbasi („The Apprentice – The Trump Story“), Brady Corbet („The Brutalist“) und Alonso Ruizpalacios („La Cocina“) Hoffnungen auf eine Auszeichnungen machen können.

Für die beste Hauptrolle, die geschlechterübergreifend vergeben wird, sind Mikey Madison („Anora“) und Justice Smith...

Nominations for the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards are in!

The awards show celebrates films budgeted at less than $30 million to produce and must be considered “independent.” There are also TV categories!

For the films, Anora and I Saw the TV Glow got six nominations each. Shogun got the most TV nominations with five total.

The show will take place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, with Aidy Bryant hosting.

Keep reading to find out more…

Scroll down for the full list of nominees…

Best Feature

Anora

Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan

I Saw the TV Glow

Producers: Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Dave McCary, Emma Stone, Sarah Winshall

Nickel Boys

Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine

Sing Sing

Producers: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Monique Walton

The Substance

Producers: Tim Bevan, Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner

Best First Feature

Dìdi

Director/Producer: Sean Wang

Producers: Valerie Bush, Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters...

Sean Baker’s Anora and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow lead the 2025 Independent Spirit Award nominations with six each.

Both films were nominated in best feature, best director, best lead performance, best supporting performance and the producers award while I Saw The TV Glow also picked up best screenplay.

Sean Wang’s Didilanded four nominations including best first feature and best first screenplay. The Apprentice is up for three awards – best directing, best editing and best lead performance for Sebastian Stan.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Santa Monica on February 22, 2025.

Earlier this week...

Wow… has it really been 40 years? It sure has, and that’s a reason to celebrate! From our first year at a restaurant on La Cienega Blvd. to a worldwide live stream, the Film Independent Spirit Awards have grown a lot.

That first year the awards, then called the Findie (Friends of Independents) Awards, awarded both Marty & Joel Coen the Best Director prize. Since then, we’ve celebrated artists like Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler, Whit Stillman, Robert Rodriguez and Kasi Lemmons, among many, many others. Next month on the blog, we’ll take deep dive into all the history of the awards, so make sure to check back with us to read all about the last 40 years of the Spirit Awards!

This year, we’re headed back to the beach in Santa Monica with returning host and Saturday Night Live alum Aidy Bryant. The show, which will be held at the beach in Santa Monica,...

“Anora,” the free-wheeling tale of a sex worker who becomes entangled with the family of a Russian oligarch, and “I Saw the TV Glow,” a horror film about two teenagers whose obsession with a show causes them to lose grip on reality, dominated the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards nominations on Wednesday, picking up six nods apiece. Both movies are up for best feature, competing against the body horror film, “The Substance,” as well as “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing,” dramas that deal with different aspects of the criminal justice system.

This year the Spirit Awards Film nominating committees said the movies it considered ranged in budget from $112,000 to $28 million. Those budgetary caps don’t apply to the shows that the Spirits recognized, such as “Shōgun,” a lavish historical epic that topped all series with five nominations, including one for best new scripted series. To be eligible, TV shows only have to...

Nominations have been revealed for the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which will take place in Los Angeles on February 22. The film nominations were led by “Anora” and “I Saw the TV Glow” with six each. In the television categories, “Shōgun” garnered the most nominations with five, followed closely by “Baby Reindeer” and “English Teacher” with four apiece. Watch the announcement here and see the full list below.

Julio Torres did well here with four nominations across his feature directorial debut “Problemista” and Max series “Fantasmas.” Indies like “Dídi,” “Janet Planet,” “Sing Sing,” “Ghostlight,” “The People’s Joker,” “In the Summers,” “The Substance,” and “Nickel Boys” also had a good day, racking up multiple nominations across the board. Netflix enjoys multiple nods, for “The Piano Lesson” and “His Three Daughters,” two movies poised to enter into the Oscar race.

The 2024 Spirit Award winners were led by “Past Lives,” “The Holdovers,” and “American Fiction,...

The nominations for the 2025 Spirit Awards have been revealed.

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow lead with six nods each. On the TV side, Shogun dominates with five noms, followed by Baby Reindeer and English Teacher with four each.

Both Anora and I Saw the TV Glow are up for the top prize of best feature, where they’ll face off against three-time nominee Sing Sing (also up for best lead performance for Colman Domingo and supporting performance for Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin) and double nominees Nickel Boys (also up for best cinematography for Jomo Fray) and The Substance (also up for best lead performance for star Demi Moore).

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow are also up for best director (Sean Baker for Anora and Jane Schoenbrun for I Saw the TV Glow), lead performance (Mikey Madison for Anora and Justice Smith for I Saw the TV Glow...

The 40th edition of the Film Independent Spirit Awards unveiled nominations this morning, nominating Neon’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora, A24’s I Saw the TV Glow, Amazon MGM Studios’ Nickel Boys, A24’s Sing Sing and Mubi’s Demi Moore body-swap horror movie The Substance for Best Feature.

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow equally lead all noms with six apiece. The Sean Baker-directed Anora landed Best Feature, Best Lead Performance (Mikey Madison), two Best Supporting Performance noms (Yuri Borisov and Karren Karagulian), Best Director, and the Producers Award.

I Saw the TV Glow, which made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year, is quite the shocker, busting into the Best Feature category as it arguably hasn’t been on the lips of any awards prognosticator this year. The Jane Schoenbrun-directed-and-written drama horror title follows a teenager who is just trying to make...

Nominees for the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards — the premiere awards event for the independent film and television community — were announced on Wednesday morning, and FX’s Shōgun led the TV pack with five total contenders.

It was followed closely by Netflix’s Baby Reindeer and FX’s English Teacher, each of which netted four nods.

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Other TV shows earning...

Awards season is chugging right along. Next up are the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which honor the best and brightest in indie cinema and television. To qualify, a film's budget must not exceed $30 million, which means major blockbusters like Wicked and Gladiator II are, obviously, out of the running.

This year,...

Mikey Madison is stepping out for a special screening of her new movie!

The 25-year-old actress joined co-stars Karren Karagulian, Mark Eidelstein, and Yura Borisov at a screening of Anora hosted by SAG-AFTRA Foundation on Tuesday night (December 3) held at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center in New York City.

In the movie, Mikey plays Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Mikey has already garnered a ton of Oscars buzz for her role in the movie, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Anora was released in theaters back in October. You can check out the trailer here!

Click through the gallery inside for 25+ pictures of the Anora cast at the screening…...

Mikey Madison is stepping out for a special screening of her new movie!

The 25-year-old actress joined co-stars Karren Karagulian, Mark Eidelstein, and Yura Borisov at a screening of Anora hosted by SAG-AFTRA Foundation on Tuesday night (December 3) held at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center in New York City.

In the movie, Mikey plays Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Mikey has already garnered a ton of Oscars buzz for her role in the movie, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Anora was released in theaters back in October. You can check out the trailer here!

Click through the gallery inside for 25+ pictures of the Anora cast at the screening…...

The stars are kicking off awards season in New York City!

Zendaya, Sebastian Stan, Angelina Jolie, Colman Domingo, and Nicole Kidman stepped out for the 2024 The Gothams Film Awards on Monday evening (December 2) held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

39 feature films and 25 performances are nominated in 10 categories for outstanding and breakthrough performances, films, director, and screenplay.

The event is also honoring Zendaya with The Gothams Spotlight Tribute, Angelina with the Performer Tribute, Timothee Chalamet & James Mangold with the Visionary Tribute, the cast of Sing Sing with the Social Justice Tribute, Denis Villeneuve with the Director Tribute and the cast of The Piano Lesson with the Ensemble Tribute.

We have now compiled photos of the stars in attendance so that you can see what everyone wore!

Keep reading to find out more…Keep scrolling to see the stars in attendance…

Adam Pearson

Fyi: Adam is wearing a Dior suit.

We all miss Hailey Upton. The character proved to be one of the most consequential in Chicago Pd history, whether it be through her presence as a solo investigator, or her relationships with people like Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) or ex-husband Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer).

Upton's departure at the end of season 11 was tough on fans. It was hard to imagine a world in which the show would continue without her. Fortunately, Pd has been able to do just that, while the actress who played Upton, Tracy Spiridakos, has turned to the big screen.

Tracy Spiridakos will star in the thriller After View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tracy Spiridakos (@spiridakos)

After. "I’ve been waiting to tell you guys about this one," she wrote. "This was such an insanely talented group of people, I feel really lucky to have worked alongside them."

After, according to Deadline,...

Exclusive: Filming has wrapped in western Massachusetts on indie thriller After, starring Dónall Ó Héalai (Monster), Tracy Spiridakos (Chicago P.D.), Andy Richter (Conan), Kevin Pollak (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Karren Karagulian (Anora), Melia Kreiling (Emily In Paris), Ben Shenkman (Billions), Micheál Neeson (Somewhere Quiet) and Gabriella Piazza (Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning).

Michael Marantz (The White Rabbit) directs from his script about a man named Ethan (Ó Héalai), a retired true-crime podcaster, who is forced to dive back into danger when his sister, Emily (Piazza), mysteriously vanishes.

The project hails from Already Alive and Vagrants Originals and is produced by Krista Minto (Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point) and Dan Kennedy (Honeydew), with cinematography by Tim Sessler.

Ó Héalai stars in the recently released TG4 & BBC Ni Television series, Crá. He’s otherwise best known for his performances in Arracht (Monster) — for which he was nominated for an Irish...

“Anora” is a new R-rated feature, written and directed by Sean Baker, winner of the top award at the recent 77th ‘Cannes Film Festival’, starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eidelstein, Yuri Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Lindsey Normington, Ivy Wolk, and Luna Sofía Miranda, now playing in theaters:

“…’Anora’ working in a Brooklyn strip club, gets her chance at a ‘Cinderella’ story when she meets and marries the son of a rich Russian oligarch.

“But once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

The first hour of “Anora” is designed to feel like a Cinderella story. Ani (Mikey Madison), a Brooklyn sex worker, gets swept up into the whirlwind lifestyle and absurd wealth of Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the 19-year-old son of a Russian oligarch who goes from her client to husband in the course of a week.

“I was trying to present the audience with a classic Hollywood romantic comedy, maybe a dirty romantic comedy, but a romantic comedy for the first 45 minutes to an hour,” said writer and director Sean Baker when he was guest on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast. “I knew that could be its own movie. I always say, ‘You can get up and leave the theater when the helicopter shot that pulls out from the mansion and she’s living happily ever after, and that’s it.’ I even bookend it with this pop song.”

But for that Cinderella story to work,...

Anyone who’s seen Anora talks about the home-invasion scene.

The 28- minute thriller sequence, a tour de force worthy of Hitchcock, comes about an hour in. Up until then, Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning movie has been an R-rated version of Pretty Woman. “Basically a romantic comedy, maybe a dirty romantic comedy, but a romantic comedy,” says the American indie auteur.

Anora, or Ani, a 23-year-old stripper living in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, played by Mikey Madison, hooks up with the slightly younger 21-year-old Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn, who has been called the Timothée Chalamet of Russia), the son of a Russian oligarch. What starts as a sex worker/client relationship — after a lap dance, Ivan asks if he can have Ani “exclusively” for a week — turns into something more. A whirlwind romance, involving a week of wild parties, and wilder sex, ends in Vegas, where Ivan, smitten and enticed...

Exclusive: ColorCreative, the talent management company founded by Issa Rae, Deniese Davis, and Talitha Watkins, has welcomed Ana Bedayo to the team. In her new role as talent manager, Bedayo will continue to pursue acclaimed talent and advance ColorCreative’s mission to elevate impactful and inclusive storytelling.

Stated ColorCreative’s President, Watkins, “Ana is an absolute powerhouse with an instinct for spotting standout talent and a true passion for nurturing their growth. We’re thrilled to welcome her to our team and look forward to the impact she’ll make as we continue to expand our roster.”

Previously a manager at Stride, Bedayo brings with her an impressive, internationally-oriented client roster including a range of notable talents across film, television, and theater. Representing actors like Yura Borisov and Mark Eydelshteyn — both of whom appear in Sean Baker’s awards contender Anora — she also works with Baker’s longtime collaborator, Karren Karagulian,...

Mikey Madison as Ani and Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan, in Anora. Courtesy of Neon

Cannes’ Palme d’Or winner Anora follows a Brooklyn exotic dancer who marries the son of a Russian oligarch and the wild series of events after the oligarch finds out and sets out to annul the marriage. Director Sean Baker wowed audiences with his breakout Florida Project, which told the story of little girl living in a Florida motel converted to cheap weekly rental apartments, but Baker’s other films, often sly comedies set in a world of sex workers and people at the lowest economic rung, are not for everyone. Although there is some of that in Anora, this one is also a deeply human film about dreams and human connections that takes unexpected turns as it shifts from comedic to touchingly human drama.

Mikey Madison stars are Anora, a Russian American who goes by...

Sean Baker always starts with the ending. "Endings for me are number one. They’re the most important thing. It’s what you’re leaving the audience with," he told The Verge earlier this month. In fact, he "always has to come up with the ending before even putting one word on paper.

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Anora is a romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Sean Baker. The 2024 film follows the story of Anora Mikheeva, a young stripper who falls in love with and marries Vanya, the son of a Russian oligarch, and finally gets her Cinderella story but once the news reaches Vanya’s parents they come to New York to get their marriage annulled by any means necessary. Anora stars Mikey Madison in the lead role with Mark Eidelstein, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, and Aleksei Serebryakov starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the intensely dramatic story, tragic romance, and compelling characters in Anora here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Pretty Woman (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Touchstone Pictures

Pretty Woman is a romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall from a screenplay written by J.F. Lawton.

Cannes Film Festival movies have a problem: When they’re at the festival, generally, the marketing and hype around them feels very stuffy. I got the chance to go to Cannes this past May, and had the absolute time of my life seeing tons of movies, new and old. While there, ‘Anora’ didn’t really get my heart beating. Maybe I didn’t do enough research before the festival, maybe I wasn’t familiar enough with Sean Baker, maybe it was a me problem. But when all you have is a promotional image and maybe a trade review or two to work with, it’s hard to get into a movie you don’t already know a lot about. The problem with Cannes festival entrants is that they don’t have trailers or teasers or fun to bring audiences in. That detail actually exemplifies the whole festival in terms of...

Update: Paramount Pictures and Temple Hill’s Smile 2 scored an estimated $23m bow to lead the North American box office in a weekend that saw a good hold by Terrifier 3, while Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora scored the highest per-screen average of 2024 so far.

Smile 2 writer-director Parker Finn ­recorded his second number one debut for his horror franchise after the original opened top in 2022 on $22.6m, which will have pleased Paramount executives, who said on average horror sequels open 26% behind the original.

Naomi Scott stars as a global pop icon who confronts her past after she...

Great indie numbers this weekend as Anora turned out highest per-screen-average of 2024 at $90k on six screens for a $540k gross. We Live In Time, the best platform expansion of the year, grossed $4.2 million on 956 screens in week 2 for a $4.5 million cume. Newcomers Union and The Line fared well on one screen each, as did Goodrich on about 1,000.

“We’re incredibly excited about this weekend’s record-breaking results and the fantastic critical and audience response to Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning film Anora. Baker is a singular director who truly understands the power of the theatrical experience and how important it is for films to be seen in the theater,” Neon said. “With Mikey Madison in her unparalleled performance as Anora, and the film’s strong awards potential, there’s no doubt it will continue to captivate a broad audience as we move into the fall.”

The highest PSA...

Welcome to Oscar Experts Typing, a weekly column in which Gold Derby editors and Experts Joyce Eng and Christopher Rosen discuss the Oscar race — via Slack, of course. This week, we discuss Best Supporting Actor, which ostensibly has one open slot.

Christopher Rosen: Hello, Joyce! The Mets are on the brink, the Yankees are hateful, and we’re here to type about Best Supporting Actor. This race has felt top heavy since the summer, when many had Samuel L. Jackson walking away with his first competitive Oscar for “The Piano Lesson.” That feels… unlikely now and it’s very easy to imagine Jackson missing out altogether. So what we’re left with is a group of newcomers to the Oscars stage, one massive movie star, and a couple of “Succession” Emmy winners. Let’s start there, with your favorite Roy son, Kieran Culkin. The actor’s work in “A Real Pain...

Neon opens Anora, its fifth consecutive Cannes Palm d’Or winner, in limited release this weekend — the highest-profile awards contender to hit theaters this awards season in a lively specialty weekend.

Sean Baker’s comedy debuts on six screens in New York and LA. The three NYC locations will be playing select screenings in the film’s original 35mm. Presales have been solid, and Neon will add San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Toronto next week, expanding thereafter to wide release by mid-to-late November.

Anora, its ensemble cast of Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yuriy Borisov, Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan in a comic variation of a modern Cinderella story, play well with audiences. Critics have swooned over the film with a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score (see Deadline review), a similar trajectory to Neon’s 2019 Palme d’Or winner Parasite.

Baker, who also wrote the screenplay,...

Plot: Annie (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer with Russian ancestry. When Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian Oligarch, arrives at her club one night, she becomes a favourite of his due to her fluency in Russian. When they impulsively marry, she finds herself in conflict with his family’s minions, who are desperate to get the marriage annulled.

Review: Sean Baker’s Anora is a movie that plays with audience expectations right from the get-go. Crime dramas have conditioned us to assume a story such as Annie’s, where this young exotic dancer ends up in conflict with shady Russian types, to take a dark turn ultimately. Instead, Baker’s Anora takes another route entirely, with it ultimately one of the funniest films of the year, being a modern (albeit gritty) variation on classic screwball comedies.

As the titular character (Anora is her Russian birth name), Mikey Madison is a firecracker.

“Anora” has been the talk of the film world for months and it’s finally landing in theaters.

The film follows a sex worker who falls in love with the son of a Russian oligarch whose father shows up and tries to get the two to break up. The film hails from Sean Baker whose previous films “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket” meant that this movie was going to be hyped — and that was before it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new movie, how to watch “Anora” right now and where to expect it on streaming.

When does “Anora” come out?

“Anora” opened in theaters Friday, Oct. 18.

Is “Anora” streaming or in theaters?

Right now “Anora” is available exclusively in theaters.

Neon – the film’s distributor – has an exclusive deal with Hulu for streaming rights, so expect to...

Casting is Sean Baker’s great skill. He casts all his own films, walking through the world looking for talent to populate his stories. On his Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” Baker had characters in mind before he finished writing the script. He offered the roles of Anora to Mikey Madison and Russian muscleman Igor to Yura Borisov, who waited some six months before they got to read the final screenplay.

Baker saw the Russian actor for the first time in “Compartment Number 6” and “Petrov’s Flu.” “Those films were playing at Cannes the year that I had ‘Red Rocket’ there,” said Baker at Telluride. He called Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen and asked him how it was to work with Borisov. “He said, ‘He’s the best guy in the world.'”

A year after Cannes, Baker called Borisov. The actor in turn recommended Mark Eydelshteyn to Baker, telling him...

Are “Anora” and “The Brutalist” being underestimated for an ensemble nomination at the Screen Actors Guild Awards? Who will be the surprise SAG nominee of the year? Gold Derby editors and experts Christopher Rosen and Joyce Eng are here with their first SAG Awards film predictions.

While “Anora” is perched atop the Best Picture odds at the Oscars, it’s not even in the top five in the SAG ensemble odds, sitting in sixth place. That might be because the Palme d’Or champ is perceived as a Mikey Madison vehicle, but it’s also a sneaky ensemble piece with great performances by Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, and Vache Tovmasyan. Similarly, “The Brutalist” — third in the Best Picture odds but seventh in ensemble — could easily be another film that gets multiple individual nominations, for Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce, but get snubbed in ensemble like “The Power of the Dog,...

Mikey Madison is slaying the red carpet!

The 25-year-old posed for photos as she arrived at the latest premiere of her new movie Anora on Tuesday (October 15) held at Regal Times Square in New York City.

Joining Mikey at the premiere were her co-stars Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova, Lindsey Normington, Luna Sofia Miranda, and Ivy Wolk along with director and writer Sean Baker.

In the new movie, Mikey plays Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Mikey has already garnered a ton of Oscars buzz for her role in the movie, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Anora hits theaters on October 18 – watch the trailer here!

A rich guy purchases the services of a sex worker for a one-week “girlfriend experience,” which turns into something even better than the real thing — does this sound familiar? Rewind back to 1990, and you can see how, given the right combination of casting, sitcom-level humor and materialistic wish fulfillment, someone can turn the oldest profession in the world into an audience-friendly facsimile of empowerment. The shadow of Pretty Woman hangs over Sean Baker’s Anora, but not in an anxiety-of-influence kinda way; it’s less a cover version auto-tuned for...

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, director Sean Baker won the Palme d’Or when his romantic drama Anora was chosen as the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition. The movie has been generating Oscar buzz ever since, with Variety reporting that lead actress Mikey Madison could be one of the “few sure-fire bets” in the Best Actress category, while Baker could end up being nominated as producer, director, writer, and editor. That all remains to be seen, but soon enough we’ll find out how a wider audience responds to the film, as Neon (the distributor behind Best Picture winner Parasite) will be giving Anora a theatrical release this Friday, October 18th. With just a few days to go until that date arrives, a new trailer for the film has been unveiled, and you can check that out in the embed above.

The story Baker crafted for...

Ivan and Anora have not known each other for very long – but they’re married already. For Anora – a Brooklynite stripper and sex worker – it’s been a whirlwind romance supplied with the most outlandish lifestyle. He’s the fairytale client that has everything she could ever want. As the son of a Russian oligarch, Ivan has got more money than responsibility…or hair on his chest for that matter. He likes to split his free-time between the sex, video games, alcohol, and drugs, all within the cosy confines of his parents’ mansion. They have more ridiculous, lavish fun in one week than most people would have in a lifetime. In Vanya’s eyes, tying the knot just makes sense, and why should Anora disagree?

Unfortunately, Sean Baker’s Anora is a grimm fairytale, and the titular princess is about to find out that her prince charming is…well…not.

“Anora” is a new R-rated feature, written and directed by Sean Baker, winner of the top award at the recent 77th ‘Cannes Film Festival’, starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eidelstein, Yuri Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Lindsey Normington, Ivy Wolk, and Luna Sofía Miranda, opening October 18, 2024 in theaters:

“…’Anora’ working in a Brooklyn strip club, gets her chance at a ‘Cinderella’ story when she meets and marries the son of a rich Russian oligarch.

“But once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened…

“…as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

"We are married! They're gonna have to accept that!" Neon has debuted the second US trailer for Anora, the beloved Palme d'Or winner from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, made by acclaimed filmmaker Sean Baker. This has been getting rave reviews from everyone since Cannes, with stops at TIFF and NYFF. Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn who works nightly as a stripper in Manhattan, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and then impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch named Vanya (aka Ivan). Once the news reaches Russia, their little fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled. So begins 24 hours of stressful NYC mayhem as hired goons pick her up and try to find Ivan. Mikey Madison stars as Ani as one of this year's big breakouts, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, & Vache Tovmasyan.

Mikey Madison is living her own Cinderella story as Ani in the second trailer for Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning romantic dramedy “Anora.”

Ahead of its Oct. 18 opening in theaters, the Cannes-favorite dropped another teaser on Wednesday. “Will you marry me?” Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) asks Ani (Madison) in the video. They then take turns reassuring each other, both saying, “Seriously.”

Ani proceeds to hold up her left hand, stating, “Three carats,” implying that she’d like at least a 3-carat gem on her wedding ring. Without a flinch, Ivan replies, “What about four?”

The trailer goes on to show the two love birds’ wild adventures traveling through the streets of New York City. In one shot, Anora’s friend tells her that she’s living a dream that’s only heard about in fairytales.

“You hit the lotto, bitch,” the friend says. “Yes, Cinderella!” Anora agrees.

The official synopsis reads: “Anora,...

One week before its theatrical release, festival sensation “Anora” has unveiled its full trailer.

The Sean Baker film, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and has played through the roof at festivals in Telluride, Toronto, and New York, will have a limited platform release starting October 18.

Here’s the official synopsis from Neon:

Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

“Anora” stars Mikey Madison as the title character. The actress, previously best known for her work on the television series “Better Things” and in hit movies like “Scream” (2022) and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” is widely considered a top contender for Best Actress at the 2025 Oscars.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Scream” breakout Mikey Madison is heading to the Strip…in Las Vegas, that is.

Madison leads Sean Baker‘s “Anora,” which has been deemed an Oscar frontrunner with Madison as an actress to watch this awards season. Madison plays an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). Vache Tovmaysa, Yura Borisov, and Baker’s frequent collaborator Karren Karagulian also star.

Baker will be the keynote speaker at IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit.

“Anora” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2024, and was the first American film to win since Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in 2011. “Anora” will be released by Neon, which handled the distribution of fellow Palme d’Or winners “Parasite,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” which all went on to be Oscar-nominated. “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall” both won Oscars.

“Anora” is a new R-rated feature, written and directed by Sean Baker, winner of the top award at the recent 77th ‘Cannes Film Festival’, starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eidelstein, Yuri Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Lindsey Normington, Ivy Wolk, and Luna Sofía Miranda, opening October 18, 2024 in theaters:

“…’Anora’ working in a Brooklyn strip club, gets her chance at a ‘Cinderella’ story when she meets and marries the son of a rich Russian oligarch.

“But once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened…

“…as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Tuesday delivered a big night for Mikey Madison.

“Are you kidding me? This is where I’m from. I was born and raised in Los Angeles and my entire family is here to see this movie for the first time. It’s a little nerve-wracking, too,” revealed the actress while standing outside the iconic Vista Theater in the city’s Los Feliz neighborhood. Madison, 25, has been acting for more than a decade and done many red carpet premieres in her career but the occasion of sitting through Anora for the first time amped up the anxiety with her siblings and best friend also in the building.

The Sean Baker film, released by Neon Oct. 18, marks many firsts for Madison. After racking up credits on Pamela Adlon’s Better Things, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and the 2022 reboot of Scream, Anora is the first time she’s...

Mikey Madison is hard at work promoting her highly-anticipated new movie!

The 25-year-old actress posed for photos with co-star Mark Eidelstein at a screening of their new movie Anora held during the 2024 Beyond Fest on Tuesday (Oct. 1) at Vista Theatre in Los Angeles.

Fellow cast members in attendance included Vache Tovmasyan, Karren Karagulian, Darya Ekamasova, Yuriy Borisov, and Lindsey Normington along with director and writer Sean Baker.

In the new movie, Mikey plays Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Mikey has already garnered a ton of Oscars buzz for her role in Anora, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Anora hits theaters on Oct. 18 – watch the trailer here!

The latest film by Sean Baker (The Florida Project), Anora, took home the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, immediately thrusting it into the Oscar race. It’s no wonder why, as Anora is equally hilarious and touching, offering some of the best screenwriting, cinematography, and performances of any movie to have come out this year.

Anora Review

The film follows Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, who falls head-over-heels for her client, Ivan, with the couple deciding to marry impulsively, sending shockwaves through his oligarchal family. Although Anora does follow some familiar beats, Baker’s script presents such an invigorating and humanistic subversion of the genre’s tropes that it feels genuinely original and unique despite its references.

Related Bookworm Fantastic Fest Review — Elijah Wood Charms in Adorable Family Adventure

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Anora is that it is one of the funniest movies of the year.

Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 17, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

Predicting the Best Supporting Actor nominees can be especially hard because when there is a celebrated ensemble film, that ensemble is often comprised primarily of men. So coming out of a year where the Best Picture race is more of an even playing field there is not one film in particular that anyone can firmly say will get a bunch of their actors nominated into this category. It could still go any number of ways.

All that said, it is probably more fun to operate off...

Mikey Madison is promoting her new movie at the 2024 New York Film Festival!

The 25-year-old actress looked pretty in a chocolate-brown dress at the Anora screening on Saturday (Sept. 28) held at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Joining Mikey at the screening were her co-stars Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan along with director Sean Baker.

Keep reading to find out more…In the new movie, Mikey plays Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Mikey has already garnered a ton of Oscars buzz for her role in Anora, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Anora hits theaters on Oct. 18 – watch the trailer here!

[The following story contains spoilers from Anora.]

It’s the scene of the movie and perhaps of the season: Halfway through his sex-worker dramedy Anora, director Sean Baker somehow puts on the board a 28-minute real-time scene in which a pair of heavies out of an ’80s action-comedy seek to rein in Mikey Madison’s tough-but-vulnerable escort as she fights back.

What starts as something broad and comedic soon morphs into a much more disturbing tableau — a piece of violent misogyny that implicates a culture of toxic masculinity, class elitism and even the audience itself. Soon it will be hard to go anywhere in film circles without hearing about it.

“I wanted to do a set piece centered on a real-time home invasion and it fleshed out from there,” Baker told the audience at the Palme d’Or winner‘s 2024 New York Film Festival premiere Saturday night, explaining how the ambitious and shape-shifting sequence came to be.

With the awards race ramping up, and festival favorites emerging, the list of films in the Best Picture Oscar race can seem long, and, this early in the season, distinctly unclear. Fortunately, both Deadline’s Awards Columnist and Chief Film Critic, Pete Hammond, and Film Awards Editor Damon Wise keep on hand an ever-evolving dossier of ones to watch. But then, of course, they don’t always agree. So, we got them together to boil it all down in a back-and-forth: What’s hot, what’s not, and what’s got big-prize potential. Bear in mind, there are, of course, more films yet to come, and for brevity’s sake, not every film with broad Oscar potential could be included in this discussion, but here are Hammond and Wise in conversation about some of the films on their maybe-Best-Picture lists right now. Click on each film’s title to read Deadline’s review.