Greta Gerwig, serving as the president of the 2024 Cannes Film Fest Jury, commented that “Anora was something we collectively felt we were transported by, we were moved by it. It felt both new and in conversation with older forms of cinema. There was something about it that reminded us of the classic structures of Lubitsch or Howard Hawks, and then it did something completely truthful and unexpected.”
My Oscar Book:
Justin Chang, critic for The New Yorker put it best: “Anora plays like a wild dream—first joyous, then catastrophic, and always fiercely unpredictable.
A contemporary return to screwball tradition is a welcome, though Baker’s play with the form is hardly seamless. Nonetheless, even when Baker’s storytelling and dialogue gets repetitive, Madison keeps things lively, and bracingly fresh.
Baker’s explorations of outsiders treads between graciousness and gawking, benevolent anthropology and malevolent missionary.”
A wild, profane blast, Anora builds up a righteous steam of fury, unleashes it against the “Ivans” of the world, and salutes those toiling thanklessly in their employ.
Critical Status:
Top Prize, Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Fest
Best Picture, New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC)
Best Picture, Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA)
Second-best film of 2024, Sight and Sound magazine
One of the 10 best, Film Comment magazine
Commercial Appeal:
Baker’s most ambitious and most accessible film to date also proved to be his most commercially successful. Made on a small budget of $6 million, it earned about $60 million at the global box office, half of which in the U.S.
