Anora’s movie poster. Photo from IMDb.
On March 2, 2025, when the 97th Academy Awards took place, I heard the movie name Anora countless times. After the night ended, Anora left the Academy Awards with five Oscars, and I knew that I needed to watch it to find out what made this movie win so many awards. Disappointment struck when I realized the answer: a lack of taste in the Academy.
Sean Baker at the 97th Oscars announced that Anora had a budget of 6 million dollars, which is a very small budget compared to most of its competitors, such as Dune: Part Two, which had a budget of 190 million dollars, or Wicked, which had a budget of 145 million dollars. However, this smaller budget was not the cause of the movie being poorly written and very dull. Anora did not live up to my expectations after winning five Oscars, but some of these Oscars were deserved, even with such a boring plot.
Best Picture
Compared to its competitors such as The Brutalist, Dune: Part Two, and The Substance, Anora should not have won best picture. There were no elements of the movie that truly spoke to me, and the darker color scheme of the movie lost my interest quickly. There were long scenes of the movie that dragged out, and felt very unimportant to the actual plot of the story. The graphics and acting felt repetitive, which became boring very quickly. It seemed that the movie was mostly a waste of time to watch, and I find no reason for me to rewatch it anytime soon.
Best Actress
Mikey Madison, who played Anora, did a brilliant job portraying the character, and I believe that this award is truly deserved. Madison was able to make me frustrated with Anora for being so naive and believing in fairytales, where a very obviously rich Russian oligarch’s son would not want to marry a financially struggling sex worker like Anora. When watching Anora I also saw Madison’s dedication to the character and the consistency with which she acted. She was dedicated outside of the movie set as well, and spent large amounts of time perfecting her Brooklyn accent for her character. Madison truly captured the essence of her character, which makes her worthy of winning this Oscar.
Best Director
Sean Baker, the director of Anora, seemed to have had a poor vision for this movie, as it was nothing extremely special. The idea for Anora was there, yet it missed the mark in many areas and felt dragged out as if it had to meet a certain time criteria. There are points in the movie where the characters are doing the same action in silence for minutes, not changing the scene or even having any dialogue, which made me lose interest in the movie quickly.
Best Original Screenplay
Baker was the writer for Anora as well and missed the mark in this area too. I believe that this movie could have been at least 20 minutes shorter if unnecessary dialogue and prolonged boring scenes, such as excessive walking scenes with unimportant dialogue, were cut. The overall plot could have been interesting, but the movie moved very slowly, and in some moments, a scene that was focused on dialogue lasted for over ten minutes. Strand Magazine points out that Anora is meant to be a reimagined version of a Cinderella story, yet from my view, the original Cinderella is much more entertaining than this.
Best Editing
Baker was also the editor for Anora, and actually did quite well with it, especially with the limited budget. He blended the different cuts of the movie nicely and was able to create a very clean and sharp movie that allowed you to follow the premise very easily. With this smaller budget, Baker’s editing skills were on complete display, and he was able to mask any signs of a diminished budget, proving that he does deserve this specific Academy Award.