US filmmaker Sean Baker accepts the award for Best Picture for "Anora" during the 97th Annual Academy Awards. AFP/VNA Photo

HOLLYWOOD — Anora, a tragicomic Cinderella story set in a murky modern world of New York strippers, Russian billionaires and incompetent gangsters, won the coveted Oscar for best picture on Sunday.

Balancing a nuanced portrayal of sex work with emotional heartbreak and crowd-pleasing farce, US indie director Sean Baker's film about a young escort marrying an oligarch's son seduced Academy Awards voters to claim the industry's top prize.

Shot for a paltry US$6 million, Anora overcame any lingering misgivings about its racy and divisive subject matter, winning five awards out of six nominations including best director and best original screenplay on a dominant night at the Hollywood gala.

"I want to thank the Academy for recognizing a truly independent film," Baker said in accepting the night's top prize. "This film was made in the blood, sweat and tears of incredible indie artists."

"Long live independent film."

From Cannes to Hollywood

Anora began its journey to the Oscars at the Cannes film festival, where it won the Palme d'Or following its world premiere last May.

It was the first American film to win the prestigious French movie gathering's top prize since Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life in 2011.

Still, Baker's path to Oscar success back home was far from assured.

His previous films covering sex work, such as 2021's Red Rocket, have performed well with overseas critics and arthouse audiences, but failed to gain traction at the multiplexes that dominate the United States.

When Anora failed to win a single prize at the Golden Globes in January, its momentum appeared to be fatally stuttering.

But with controversy engulfing rivals like Emilia Perez, Anora quietly cultivated word-of-mouth buzz, earning almost $40 million at the global box office.

And it decisively re-emerged as this season's frontrunner last month, when it won key prizes from Hollywood's producer, director, writer and critic guilds.

A rare film that is almost universally admired, from a director finally receiving his due, it collected the US movie industry's most important prize of all Sunday.

Sex work

Anora – which begins at a New York strip club – is Baker's fifth film to tackle sex work.

Typically for his movies, several actors are real-life erotic dancers, who both perform on screen, and also advised the filmmakers on everything from slang to typical interactions with customers.

"He said I looked like his 18-year-old daughter and then he bought five dances from me," complains one stripper.

"Well, at least he bought the dances," replies Ani (Oscar winner Mikey Madison), the protagonist.

Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), a bratty and fabulously wealthy Russian customer, takes a liking to Ani, and the pair take a whirlwind detour to Las Vegas, where they spontaneously marry.

But any illusions of Pretty Woman are quickly shattered, as the action returns to New York.

Terrified that his parents have learned about his romantic antics, Ivan flees, and a group of panicking hoodlums – led by Karren Karagulian's Toros – have to restrain a furious and violent Ani.

This memorable set piece is the first scene Baker wrote for Anora.

Karagulian, who met Baker at university in the 1990s and has starred in several of his films, was the original inspiration for Anora.

The pair had for years discussed a project to be set in Karagulian's native New York neighbourhood – the colourful Russian immigrant enclave of Brighton Beach.

Humour and heartbreak

Known for his neo-realist filmmaking, Baker often injects humour into his films.

And he created arguably his most comedic sequence to date with the second act of Anora a wild-goose-chase hunt for Ivan, with elements of screwball farce.

"I'm trying to capture a truth, and usually show as close to reality as I can get. And that almost always needs humor," Baker later explained to AFP.

"Because sometimes we use laughter to cope. Sometimes we're laughing when we are the saddest."

The film reaches a devastating climax in which Ani sees her dream of a marriage of means evaporate, and allows her feisty, hypersexualised mask to slip, at least for a brief and heart-wrenchingly vulnerable moment.

Throughout this awards season, Baker and Madison have used their many acceptance speeches to encourage the destigmatization and decriminalization of sex work.

Baker acknowledged the community onstage in accepting the best original screenplay prize on Sunday, saying "they have shared their stories, they have shared their life experience with me over the years. My deepest respect."

Madison echoed the sentiment: "All of the incredible people, the women, that I've had the privilege of meeting from that community has been one of the highlights of this... entire incredible experience."

"I will continue to support and be an ally." — AFP