“Anora” Shines Bright!
Last night, two of the most important awards of the Oscar season were given en out, and the film “Anora” ruled them both!
“Anora” won the Producers Guild of America award for Best Picture, and just down the street, Sean Baker won the Best Director award from the Directors Guild Of America as well! More of what this mean for Oscar night, but let’s talk about”Anora”.
It tops my list for best picture of the year, followed by “A Complete Unknown”, “A Real Pain” and “The Substance.”
First, here is the “red band” trailer, which means they allowed some swearing in it:
Mikey Madison gives an incredible performance as Ani – short for Anora, a stripper / prostitute from Brooklyn, who gets her shot at a “Pretty Woman” story when she meets the son of a Russian Oligarch. He doesn’t want to go back to live in Russia, so they get married so he can get his green card.
Karren Karagulian plays the mobster assigned to keep track of him, so when the news gets back to Russia, all hell breaks loose!
The parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled – whatever it takes. Needless to say: things go very very wrong:
Karagulian gives an incredibly funny and loud performance, commanding every scene he is in – but it was Yura Borisov who received the nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his delightfully low-key performance as the “hitman with a heart of gold.”
This is a history making nomination: Yura is the first Russian to be nominated in an acting category since the fall of the Soviet Union.
In any other year, he’d be a lock for the Oscar, as he is the coolest and calmest person in the room – and by playing against the frenetic energy of the film, he shines! Yes, he’d be a lock to win except of course for this year, thanks to this guy:
Kieran Culkin gives the performance of a lifetime in Jesse Eisenberg’s wonderful film “A Real Pain.” Two cousins travel to Poland to see their family’s home, which had been taken from them in the early day of the holocaust. The film is poignant, funny, and Kieran completely owns the film with a performance for the ages.
Back to “Anora”: Director Sean Baker, known for this films “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket”, delivers a energetic yet poignant film that makes great use of the city of New York – and a cast of immediately memorable characters.
After winning Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival last spring, the film received 6 Academy Award nominations….and the momentum for the film kicked into high gear last night with two very important wins!
The Producers Guild on Saturday awarded “Anora” the best film prize, giving it a massive boost – it also won the Critics Choice Award Friday night as well…these awards are a very strong Oscar forecast as the award has aligned with the Academy Award winner for Best Picture 16 of the past 21 years.
First, Baker had to be at The Directors Guild of America awards dinner down the street, where he won the top prize – and guess what? It is also a strong predictor of Oscar success historically, missing the eventual Oscar Best Director winner only eight times in its 76 years – so “Anora” has become the film to beat!
In a year of many worthy films, “Anora” is now poised to take home the awards for Best Picture and Director, but will Mikey win for Best Actress?
Demi Moore might have other things to say, as she is brilliant in the film “The Substance.” Moore bares all as an aging Actress who wants to prolong her career by taking “the substance”.
This film is my third favorite of the year: bold, horrific and brave in every way! What a year for cinema!
The final award ballots for the Academy Awards are due this week and the awards are on Sunday, March 2: here are all of the nominations!
By the way, I mentioned that “Anora” won the best picture award – the Palme d’or – at the Cannes Film Festival last May:
The world’s most prestigious film festival shines a spotlight on cinema – but it’s not just “art”. It’s also a launching spot for all kinds of movies, since the world’s film press is all there at one time. One year, we got to see an early cut of the hit comedy “The Mask” and got this wild interview with Jim Carrey on the Croisette as well:
He was hilarious, about to become a superstar thanks to “The Mask” – and we got to interview his new co-star Cameron Diaz, in her movie debut as well…check out the video:
You can read the whole story here:
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Congratulations to all of this year’s Oscar nominees, and let’s see if “Anora” can keep its momentum going – and if you like this story please share on social media – thanks!
Categories: Academy Awards, Action Films, Art, Awards, Cult Movies, Film Fight Club, Great Films, Hollywood, Independent Cinema, Movies, Pop Culture, Talent/Celebrities
johnrieber 
can’t wait to see these soon, especially agora
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Thanks for keeping me up to date with what is current, John. I haven’t see any ‘new’ films since 2023.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Pete, I think you’d enjoy “Anora”…will be on streaming etc soon
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