Independent comedy-drama film “Anora” won big at the 2025 Academy Awards, but did the film deserve the acclaim?
“Anora” tells the story of a Brooklyn stripper, Anora “Ani” Mikheeva, played by Mikey Madison, who marries the spoiled son of a Russian oligarch, Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov, played by Mark Eydelshteyn. Anora’s fairytale life is threatened once her husband’s parents discover the marriage and insist on an annulment.
Anora goes on a journey full of stressful and harrowing situations, including many scenes depicting sex and nudity, earning the film its “R” rating. The film won five Oscars, the most for any film at this year’s Academy Awards. Most notable is the prestigious Best Picture award, which was an unexpected win over blockbusters like “Wicked” and “The Substance.”
Madison also won Best Actress and thanked the sex worker community, declaring herself an ally. She stated that meeting women in the industry was a personal highlight while filming “Anora.” I was eager to see the film after it won Best Picture, especially as I knew Mikey Madison as one of two Ghostfaces in “Scream V.” I was excited to see her in what I believed to be a romance film; however, “Anora” is no romance. The film markets itself as a “Cinderella story,” but it is far from one.
Anora spends most of the movie accompanied by three Russian men, played by Karren Karagulian, Yiriy Borisov and Vache Tovmasyan. These men are first introduced in a chaotic scene in which Anora is aggressively tied up, gagged and left in an indecent position and her safety was feared throughout this entire scene.
As a woman, being alone with three strangers while pantsless is bad enough. I cannot imagine being restrained against my will and forced to sit on a man’s lap. This scene marked the moment I realized the type of film I was watching, and from then on, I felt unsettled.
The three men then bring Anora with them as they travel through Brighton Beach, a Russian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn. This plot takes up roughly 60% of the movie’s runtime, so as a result I found myself checking the time often, wondering when something interesting would happen.
Anora’s motivations throughout the film are somewhat confusing. Her personal journey as a sex worker is compelling in theory, but the film fails to address it correctly. Instead, it reeks of male gaze and borders on anti-feminist. Finding out that a man directed, wrote and produced the film only added to my discomfort.
Another big issue I had with the film is what went on behind the scenes. With the amount of nudity and sex scenes throughout the film, it is astonishing to me that there was no intimacy coordinator on set.
Madison said in a December 2024 interview that she passed on having an intimacy coordinator, because she wanted to immerse herself in her character. This response received much backlash online, which I believe is justified. Intimacy coordinators are for everyone’s safety on set, not just the main actors.
It was shocking to see “Anora” win Best Picture after seeing the movie in theaters. The film itself is not something I will want to watch again, and I do not agree with the lack of an intimacy coordinator on set. “Anora” is still in theatres currently, but is also available through on-demand platforms such as Apple TV.
