Sean Baker’s Anora clinched the prestigious Palme d’Or, outshining fierce competition from Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light and Mohammed Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which secured the Grand Prix and Special Prix awards respectively.
Accepting the award, Baker quipped on his long journey, saying, “This has literally been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with my life now.”
Baker, a familiar face at Cannes, first made waves with The Florida Project in 2017, an exploration of a mother and daughter living on society’s margins. He returned in 2021 with Red Rocket, a gritty tale of a porn star returning to his Texas hometown.
Director Sean Baker, Palme d’Or award winner for the film ‘Anora’, embraces Mikey Madison during the closing ceremony of the 77th Cannes Film Festival | Photo Credit: CLODAGH KILCOYNE
With Anora, Baker continues to look at complex, marginalized characters, this time focusing on a 23-year-old stripper from New York City, portrayed by Mikey Madison. The film’s cast also includes Mark Eydelshteyn, Yuriy Borisov, Karren Karagulian, and Vache Tovmasyan.
The story follows Anora, whose life takes a dramatic turn after meeting Vanya, the son of a Russian oligarch. The film’s powerful storytelling and compelling performances earned it a 10-minute standing ovation at its premiere.
In his acceptance speech, Baker dedicated the award to sex workers, saying, “This is for all sex workers, past, present, and future, this is for you.”
He also emphasized the importance of preserving the theatrical experience in cinema, urging, “Right now as filmmakers we need to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical expedition. The world has to be reminded that watching a film at home while scrolling through your phone and checking emails and messages is just not the way, even though some tech companies would like us to think so.”
Baker’s commitment to representing sex workers on screen stems from his 2012 film Starlet, after which he developed lasting relationships with individuals in the adult film industry. In an interview at Cannes, he noted, “I became friends with [sex workers] and realized there were a million stories from that world. If there is one intention with all of these films, I would say it’s by telling human stories, by telling stories that are hopefully universal. It’s helping remove the stigma that’s been applied to this livelihood.”
Anora continues its distributor Neon’s almost prophetic streak of predicting the top prize at Cannes, with the last four Palme d’Or winners, including Anatomy of a Fall (2023), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Titane (2021), and Parasite (2019). Neon’s awards campaigns have inevitably translated to success at the Oscars with Anatomy of a Fall, Triangle of Sadness and Parasite, all going on to be nominated for Best Picture and win Oscars.
