Sex and money: they make the world go round and Sean Baker’s movies spin. Usually, there’s more of the former than the latter, in Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. And here again, Ani (Mikey Madison), a stripper, will trade what she has—which is sex—for what she needs—which is money. Enter Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the guileless son of a Russian oligarch, who’s not just an easy mark, he’s richer than even Ani can dream of. These two meet and it’s fireworks and fairytales—cue a Vegas wedding—at least until his parents get wind of it. At which point, watch out, because Mr. Baker is just getting warmed up.
Greta Gerwig’s Cannes jury bestowed the Palme d’Or on this breathless modern Cinderella story, and it’s hard to remember a more entertaining winner. As always with Baker’s films, Anora comes on fast and funny but it’s unmistakably situated in the real world, a place where power typically trumps romance, but where you should never underestimate the survival skills of a woman with nothing to lose.
Palme d’Or, Cannes 2024
Media Partner
Community Partner
Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Yura Borisov, Vache Tovmasyan
USA
2024
In English and Russian with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Ken Meyer, Clay Pecorin, Glen Basner, Alison Cohen, Milan Popelka
Producer
Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan
Screenwriter
Sean Baker
Cinematography
Drew Daniels
Editor
Sean Baker
Production Design
Stephen Phelps
Sean Baker
Sean Baker is a writer, director, producer, and editor. His credits include Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), the Oscar-nominated The Florida Project (2017), and Red Rocket (2021). Anora (2024), which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is his latest film.
Filmography: Take Out (2004); Tangerine (2015); The Florida Project (2017); Red Rocket (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.
Left-Handed Girl
Co-written and edited by Sean Baker (Anora), Shi-Ching Tsou's heartwarming solo feature debut follows a single mom in Taipei who is too consumed with her noodle stand to keep tabs on her five-year-old daughter's burgeoning shoplifting habit.
The Librarians
Dispatches from the front line of America's culture wars (and ours too): librarians speak out about the war against ideas, history, freedom of expression and sexual identity, a campaign in which an open mind is the ultimate enemy.
Dawn Pemberton Sings Aretha + Amazing Grace Film Screening
These dates are going to knock your socks off: one of the all-time great concert films, Aretha Franklin performing at the New Bethel Baptist Church in 1972, and Canada's own Queen of Soul, Dawn Pemberton, performing live in Aretha's honour.
Caravaggio
In the latest from Exhibition on Screen, co-directors David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky shed light not only on Caravaggio's paintings, but his life, often kept half-hidden in the same chiaroscuro tones he shaded his masterpieces with.
Train Dreams
A lovely, ruminative movie set in the Pacific Northwest in the first half of the last century. Robert (Joel Edgerton) is a lumberjack, a taciturn man who comes to appreciate the life slipping between his fingers.