After a victorious premiere at London Film Festival, Oscar frontrunner Anora is out in cinemas very soon. It tells the story of a sex worker who meets and marries the son of a Russian oligarch, and his family's descent on them to immediately get the marriage annulled. It's been billed as a Cinderella story – but we think there might be more to it.
Mikey Madison, who has previously starred in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Scream and Lady in the Lake, will lead the movie as Anora. She has already opened up about a highlight from Anora's release – a screening that was thrown for real-life sex workers and strippers.
She recently paused filming as she 'didn't want to orgasm any more'.
“That was something I wanted to do for a long time,” she said in an interview. “I could probably cry talking about it. It’s the most important thing because the movie is for sex workers. So that was really special. Just to walk in and all of these amazing women are clapping with their heels, giving us applause. That was beautiful.”
Here's everything we know so far about Anora.
Anora plot
The film's plot synopsis reads as follows: “Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.”
Anora has catapulted Mikey into being an Oscar frontrunner for Best Actress. “All I can say is, I’m just really happy that people feel so strongly about the film and that it’s creating conversation. It’s exciting,” she told British Vogue when asked about her nomination.
The role of protagonist Ani (or Anora) was written for her by director Sean Baker after he saw her in Scream. “It’s really special,” Mikey said of how this felt. “I’ve never had a director want to write a film for me before, especially somebody like Sean, whose films I really loved. I think a part of me definitely had some imposter syndrome, but I tried to put that aside and just focus on the character.”
While Sean was writing the script, she did her research while constantly in conversation with him about the story. “I was able to read memoirs written by sex workers,” she said. “I watched documentaries. I devoured YouTube videos that were like ‘A night in my life as a dancer’.”
Anora cast
Joining Mikey will be Mark Eidelshtein, Yuri Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Ivy Wolk, Vache Tovmasyan, Ross Brodar, Lindsey Normington, Paul Weissman, Emily Weider, Brittney Rodriguez, Luna Sofía Miranda, Vincent Radwinsky, Ella Rubin, Zoë Vnak, Vlad Mamai and Maria Tichinskaya.
Anora release date
It will be released in cinemas from 1 November.
Anora trailer
Set to a somewhat trippy version of Blondie's Dreaming, this trailer is also a dream in itself, good and bad. We see a meet cute, and then a family descend to try and break up a “fraud marriage”. Will love prevail?
