This weekend fundamentally reshaped the Oscar race in some really interesting ways. People were worried that Emilia Perez might end up being a major contender for Best Picture or Best Director. People also thought that The Brutalist is just the kind of artsy film which many Oscar voters want to reward. Meanwhile, most people’s favorite films of the year were Conclave and Anora. Anora’s Oscar campaign has been so, so quiet, so much so that I’ve repeatedly lamented the fact that Mikey Madison needs to be seen out more. Well, it actually looks like Anora’s campaign is having some kind of late surge and/or the film is peaking at just the right time. Anora ended up winning the Critics Choice Award for Best Picture on Friday. Then on Saturday, Anora won the top prizes at the Directors Guild Awards AND the Producers Guild Awards.
Sean Baker won both the PGA Awards‘ and DGA Awards‘ top prizes for Neon’s Anora — on the same night. And if past statistics are a signifier of what’s to come, it is a major indicator for both the Oscars’ Best Director category as well as Best Picture.
Baker’s wild night started at the Beverly Hilton, where he won the Directors Guild’s top prize, the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film. He then raced to the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, where he picked up the PGA’s top trophy, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, alongside his fellow producers Alex Coco and Samantha Quan.
Deadline confirmed that the PGA ceremony delayed its start to accommodate the Anora team, which was coming off taking the Best Picture prize Friday evening at the Critics Choice Awards.
“My imposter syndrome is skyrocketing right now, as well as my cortisol levels,” Baker said onstage at the DGA Awards after his win there tonight. “It’s such an honor to be recognized by my peers.”
He thanked his directorial team, cast and crew, Neon, the DGA, and then turned to Quan and Coco. “Obviously I’ve tortured you and I’m so sorry,” he said. “They were able to pull off a $6 million film shot on film in New York City in 2023 — almost an impossibility.”
Baker gave props to his cast “that put everything into it,” especially Mikey Madison, who plays the lead role of Ani (Anora), alongside Yura Borisov, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan, in the film about a young woman working in a New York strip club who impulsively marries a younger, rich client, only to find out he is the son of a Russian oligarch, and his family are less than pleased by the union.
As a long-time awards-season watcher, what this feels like is when CODA made its late surge. Was CODA actually the best film of the year? Not really, but it was a good film, well-acted, and it was a fan-favorite choice. That’s my comparison – I love Anora and I think it’s such a specific and well-told story, the acting is great and Sean Baker has been making really good indie films for a while (Justice 4 The Florida Project). It’s surprising that this smaller film is coming out of this weekend the “favorite” for the Best Picture Oscar, but I love it. I would have loved it if it had been my other fave, Conclave, too.
The one “thing” that people were holding against Anora was the fact that they didn’t use an intimacy coordinator. Mikey Madison spoke about it in a few interviews, saying that Sean Baker offered to hire an IC, but Mikey declined it, and she and actor Mark Eidelstein wanted to keep their sex scenes very intimate, with minimal crew, etc. I think this would be the kind of controversy which could have sunk Anora’s Oscar chances, except that Mikey and the other actors literally had no complaints about how they were treated. Baker gave Mikey the agency to say what she wanted and how she wanted those scenes to play out. She didn’t feel exploited and neither did the other actors, and they’ve all gone on the record about it. These PGA and DGA wins feel like vindication for that as well – yes, an IC probably should have been used, but in certain situations (such as a small-budget independent film), it’s fine if the director and actors are on the same page and communicate fully about boundaries and everything else (which is what ICs are supposed to do, facilitate those conversations).
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
