‘Anora’ triumphs at Academy Awards, issues ‘battle cry’ to movie biz

The film’s director, Sean Baker, advocated to keep movie theaters open.

Hollywood’s biggest night became the property of New York after Anora, a movie filmed on location in NYC with the backing of an indie studio based there, took home five Academy Awards. The trophies — for best picture, director, actress, editing, and original screenplay — cemented the film as the clear winner of a frenetic Oscars race that displayed the movie biz’s current challenges.

Best picture = meh box office

Sean Fennessey, co-host of The Big Picture podcast, reported that from 1997 to 2004, every best picture winner grossed at least $100 million at the domestic box office. In the 20 years since then, only five films have made that much.

Anora earned $15.6 million domestically (~$38 million globally) on a budget of $6 million. That speaks to how going to the movies is no longer central to Americans’ lives — and how fringe some of the Academy’s choices have become.

While accepting the award for best director, Anora’s Sean Baker delivered a “battle cry” for the film industry to save movie theaters. He highlighted how the pandemic forced over 1,000 screens to close down.

Fun fact: Baker became the first person to win four Oscars for the same film, claiming the prizes for best original screenplay, best editing, best directing, and best picture.

Bad publicity may actually be bad: Emilia Pérez, which started the Oscars campaign strong but fell out of favor when its star became the center of an old-tweets controversy, took home just two awards. The Brutalist won three of the 10 awards it was nominated for following a PR skirmish over the film’s use of AI.