Low-budget independent film wins big at Oscars 2025

Anora was directed by Sean Baker with an extremely low production budget: 6 million USD, grossed 41 million USD when released in theaters, and received 5 Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Mikey Madison), Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

Filmmaker Sean Baker and the crew of Anora receive the award for Best Film

The Life of a Stripper

Anora, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, is a work that conveys a social message about how people perceive each other. The film tells the story of a few eventful weeks in the life of Anora, a stripper who marries a rich playboy, with a bitter taste of extreme labor exploitation.

Baker has made a career out of focusing on the fringes of society, creating films like Tangerine (2015), The Florida Project (2017), and more that tell the stories of people often overlooked by mainstream cinema. With Anora , he expands this theme to a larger scale.

Anora still has Sean Baker's signature aesthetic with natural acting and unadorned settings that are memorable.

Scene from the movie Anora

In the film, New York is vibrant, bustling, and in this constantly moving city there are strip clubs. The shabby apartment or the lavish penthouse feel real, contributing to the stark contrast between Anora (Mikey Madison) and Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) in a world where hundreds of other Anoras want to squeeze in and still go unnoticed.

Anora is constantly shifting, starting as a romance, then turning into a feminist drama, then turning into a comedy of errors, and finally turning into something uncompromising, a poignant look at power, class, and control.

Another compelling element of Anora is that it not only tells a story about power, but also about intentional choices. In a world of money and influence, the rich don’t need to speak up or make threats. The quiet assertion of control, the ability to make someone disappear without a trace, is far more terrifying.

Mikey Madison won Best Actress for Anora

Mikey Madison (25 years old) plays stripper and prostitute Anora. Known for her sharp, emotionless appearance in Scream (2022), Madison delivers a performance so real that the audience feels like they are watching a real person in real life.

Luna Sofia Miranda met director Sean Baker at a strip club and her life changed forever. That night, Miranda, 26, was called in at the last minute to be a dancer at a strip club in Brooklyn. She struck up a conversation with what looked like “any other couple” at the bar but turned out to be director Baker and his wife, producer Samantha Quan.

The couple quickly discovered that Miranda was an aspiring actress and invited her to audition for the role of Lulu, Anora's best friend and co-worker, the main character in the film Anora .

"I feel so proud to represent my community because most of the girls I work with dance at clubs to pay for film school, rent. I think Anora has given a lot of people hope that they can make their dreams come true," Miranda said.

Anora 's win is a clear testament to the voice of independent film. "If you're trying to make an independent film, keep doing it. We need more of them. This is proof," Sean Baker, a director known for his short films about porn stars, transgender sex workers and other minorities, told Reuters.

Sean Baker goes down in history, sorry for Demi Moore

Holding 4 Oscar statues for the same movie is a new record and is difficult for anyone to achieve, except Sean Baker.

The 54-year-old director won four Oscars for producing, directing, writing and editing Anora - something that had never happened in the previous 96 Oscar ceremonies. Only Walt Disney won four Oscars in 1954, but for four different films.

"I want to thank the Academy for recognizing an independent film. Anora was made with the blood, sweat and tears of incredible artists," Sean Baker said when accepting his fourth Oscar.

Director Sean Baker won 4 Oscars for the film Anora

However, the biggest shock was when Mikey Madison won the Best Actress award for Anora , beating out a host of big names like Cynthia Erivo, Karla Sofía Gascón, Fernanda Torres and especially Demi Moore.

Madison appeared stunned to win her first Oscar, a surprise victory over frontrunner and first-time nominee Demi Moore.

Demi Moore's performance as Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance - a satirical body horror film directed by Coralie Fargeat - won many awards: Golden Globe, Critics' Choice Movie Award and many others. Demi Moore was praised by many critics for her challenging role in this film, which required her to perform many psychologically and physically demanding scenes, an element that is often highly appreciated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the organization that awards the Oscars).

2025 Oscar Awards Results

Best Picture: Anora ; Best Actor: Adrien Brody ( The Brutalist ); Best Actress: Mikey Madison ( Anora ); Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin ( A Real Pain ); Best Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldaña ( Emilia Pérez ); Best Director: Sean Baker ( Anora ); Best Film Editing: Sean Baker ( Anora ); Best Original Screenplay: Sean Baker ( Anora ); Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Straughan ( Conclave ); Best International Feature Film: I'm Still Here (Brazil); Best Cinematography: Lol Crawley ( The Brutalist ); Best Animated Feature: Flow ; Best Documentary: No Other Land .

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/phim-doc-lap-kinh-phi-thap-dai-thang-oscar-2025-185250303234902016.htm