Anora, directed by Sean Baker and released by Neon, won five Academy Awards at the 97th ceremony on March 2, 2025, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Mikey Madison. It had already won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. This roundup collects what named critics and major outlets said about the film — the praise, and the reservations.
Red Orb News publishes information, not opinions of its own: every reception point below is attributed to a named critic or outlet, and aggregate scores are named to their aggregator. Availability details are dated and subject to change.
What Is Anora and Who Made It?
Anora is a 2024 American film written, directed, and edited by Sean Baker, the filmmaker behind Tangerine (2015) and The Florida Project (2017). It runs 139 minutes and was released theatrically in the United States by Neon on October 18, 2024. The plot premise, kept spoiler-light here: Ani (Mikey Madison), a stripper in Brooklyn, impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch, and the arrangement collides with his family's fixers. Baker's longtime collaborator Samantha Quan co-produced; the cast also includes Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, and Karren Karagulian.
The film premiered in competition at Cannes on May 21, 2024, and took the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, from a jury led by Greta Gerwig. It was the first American film to win the Palme d'Or since Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life in 2011.
What Did Anora Win at the 2025 Oscars?
At the 97th Academy Awards, held March 2, 2025, Anora won five Oscars from six nominations: Best Picture, Best Director for Baker, Best Actress for Madison, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Its only loss was Best Supporting Actor, where Yura Borisov was nominated.
- Best Picture — winner
- Best Director (Sean Baker) — winner
- Best Actress (Mikey Madison) — winner
- Best Original Screenplay — winner
- Best Film Editing — winner
- Best Supporting Actor (Yura Borisov) — nominee
The five wins tied Anora with some of the most-awarded films of the past quarter-century, and Baker personally collected four: picture, director, screenplay, and editing.
What Did Named Critics Say About Anora?
The critical record was strongly positive overall. As of its awards run, the film held a critics' score above 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a score in the high 80s to low 90s on Metacritic, according to those aggregators' own pages.
Recurring points of praise, drawn from named reviews: critics at The New York Times, including Manohla Dargis, highlighted Mikey Madison's lead performance and the film's kinetic first half; reviewers at Variety and The Guardian praised the ensemble around her, particularly Yura Borisov's quiet turn as a fixer; and critics at IndieWire and Rolling Stone singled out Baker's editing, noting the film's construction as a comedy that turns harsh. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian placed Anora among the standout films of Cannes 2024 in his festival coverage.
The reservations were real and are preserved here rather than averaged away. Stephanie Zacharek of Time wrote that she found the film's tonal swerve — from screwball energy into sustained punishment of its heroine — distancing, a view echoed in mixed reviews at other outlets. Some critics also questioned the broadness of the Russian-accented characterizations in the first half. Justin Chang, then of the Los Angeles Times, praised the craft while noting that the film asks a lot of the audience's tolerance for its crueller stretch — positions summarized from his published review.
How Did Anora Fare With Awards Groups and Audiences?
Beyond Cannes and the Oscars, Anora collected Best Picture honors from the Producers Guild and the Critics Choice Awards in early 2025, and directing honors from the Directors Guild. Its North American theatrical gross finished near the $40 million mark worldwide by early 2025, per box office reporting compiled by Reuters at the time — a solid result for a film of its budget, boosted by its awards run.
How Did Anora Get Made and Released?
Baker shot Anora in Brooklyn in early 2024 on a reported budget in the low eight figures, continuing his practice of casting non-professional and lesser-known actors alongside leads — Mikey Madison, coming off Scream VI, worked with a Russian-dialect coach for months before production. The film was produced by Baker, Alex Coco, and Samantha Quan, with Neon releasing in the United States after the Cannes premiere.
The rollout followed the classic awards pattern of recent Neon titles: the Palme d'Or in May 2024, a platform theatrical release beginning October 18, 2024, a slow expansion through the fall, and a home-platform push timed to nominations voting. By the morning of March 2, 2025, the film had become the centerpiece of the ceremony — and, per reporting compiled by Reuters from the awards season, one of the most-awarded Palme winners in decades.
For context on the win itself: only a handful of Palme d'Or winners have also taken Best Picture at the Oscars, a short list that includes Parasite in 2020 and, before it, films going back decades. Anora joined that group in 2025, which is the simplest summary of why its reception record stays relevant to anyone following the awards conversation.
Where Can You Watch Anora?
As of December 2025, Anora is available to rent or buy on major digital platforms in the United States, including Amazon's Prime Video Store and Apple TV; subscription availability varies by region and changes over time. Availability dated December 2025; check your platform's listing before renting.
| Title | Year | Director | Distributor | Runtime | Where to watch (date checked) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anora | 2024 | Sean Baker | Neon | 139 min | Digital rental/purchase on major platforms (Dec. 2025) |
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