Anora

2024

Sean Baker

139 min

Drama, Comedy, Romance

A young sex worker from Brooklyn gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as his parents set out to get the marriage annulled.

Anora
93%
RT Critics
81%
RT Audience
91
Metacritic
★ 4.1
Letterboxd
Where to watch ↗

The Conversation

Sean Baker’s “Anora” has ignited critical acclaim with a stunning 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 91 on Metacritic, earning praise as a “pure cinema” triumph from The Big Picture podcast and hailed by Peter Debruge at Variety as “the uncut gem of this year’s Cannes competition.” Critics consistently celebrate Baker’s subversive sex-work romance as both thrilling and heartbreaking. Don’t miss the thought-provoking Slate review offering a sex worker’s perspective that complicates the widespread critical consensus, providing essential counter-commentary to the film’s overwhelmingly positive reception.

The Big Picture

'Anora' Is Pure Cinema and the Best Picture Race Is Completely Up in the Air

2024-10-21

Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins discuss Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner.

Podcast
The Big Picture

The 2025 Oscars: 'Anora' Has the Greatest Day

2025-03-03

The Big Picture reacts to Anora's sweep at the 2025 Academy Awards.

Podcast
Next Picture Show

#452: Cinde-F***ing-Rella, Pt. 2 — Anora

2024-11-26

Next Picture Show pairs Anora with Pretty Woman in a Cinderella story deep dive.

Podcast
The Filmcast

After Dark: Anora

2024-11-16

The Filmcast's dedicated review of Anora.

Podcast
Grierson & Leitch

"Anora," "Blitz," "Heretic"

2024-11-11

Tim Grierson and Will Leitch review Anora.

Podcast
Variety

'Anora' Review: Sean Baker's Whirlwind Sex-Work Romance Sparkles

By Peter Debruge

2024-05-21

Variety calls Anora 'the uncut gem of this year's Cannes competition' — a rowdy, subversively romantic sex farce.

Review
RogerEbert.com

Anora

2024-10-18

RogerEbert.com praises Anora as 'powerful, spirited and rollicking' — both thrilling and heartbreaking.

Review
RogerEbert.com

Less Sex Scenes, More Sex Shots: Sean Baker and Mikey Madison on Anora

By Nick Allen

2024-10-18

Sean Baker and Mikey Madison discuss the making of Anora and their approach to the film's intimacy.

Feature
The Criterion Collection

Anora

2025-05-06

Criterion's release with essays by Dennis Lim and Kier-La Janisse, plus a 67-minute making-of documentary.

Feature
Vanyaland

Sean Baker on Criterion, Anora, and Exploitation

2025-05-06

Baker discusses the Criterion release and how Anora would have been marketed as exploitation cinema in the 1970s.

Feature
High on Films

Sex, Power, and Representation: Analyzing Sean Baker's Anora Through Feminist and Auteur Lenses

2024-12-10

An analytical essay examining Anora's treatment of sex work, power, and representation.

Feature
Screen Daily

Anora: Cannes Review

2024-05-21

Screen Daily's Cannes review of Sean Baker's Palme d'Or-winning screwball comedy.

Review
Slate

Anora: As a Sex Worker, I Find It a Bit More Complicated

2024-10-21

A sex worker's perspective on Anora — finding the film beloved by critics but more complicated in its portrayal.

Review
Screen Daily

Sean Baker Breaks Down Four Key Scenes from Anora

2025-02-10

Baker breaks down four key scenes and his approach to actor improvisation.

Feature
The Guardian

Anora review – Sean Baker's amazing, full-throttle tragicomedy

By Peter Bradshaw

2024-05-21

Bradshaw compares it to Pretty Woman — an amazing, full-throttle tragicomedy of romance, denial and betrayal.

Review
The A.V. Club

Anora review: Mikey Madison Leads Lovely, Chaotic Cinderella Story

2024-10-18

AV Club praises Madison's star-making turn in Baker's brilliant inversion of the Cinderella tale.

Review
The New York Review of Books

Anora's Honor

By Anna Shechtman and D. A. Miller

2024-11-01

A deep literary analysis of Anora through the lens of honor, class, and the sex work narrative.

Feature
The Criterion Collection

A Second Look at Anora

2025-05-01

Criterion's essay revisiting Anora after its Oscar sweep.

Feature
The Hollywood Reporter

'Anora' Review: Mikey Madison in Sean Baker's Cracked Cinderella Story

By David Rooney

2024-05-21

Rooney praises how Baker draws viewers into a vivid milieu about people from marginalized fringes.

Review
Rolling Stone

'Anora' Is Part Sex-Worker Fairy Tale, Part Modern Screwball Comedy

By David Fear

2024-10-16

Fear calls Anora a near-masterpiece of cockeyed humanism and cutting indictment on cash ruling everything.

Review
BFI Sight & Sound

Anora: Sean Baker's Demolition of the Pretty Woman Fantasy

By Jessica Kiang

2024-10-29

Kiang describes Anora as by turns swoony, funny, panicky, and sad -- Bakers most vivid creation yet.

Review
Empire

Anora Review: A Frenzied Fairy Tale

By Beth Webb

2024-10-29

Empire gives 4/5, calling Anora an intoxicating pairing of director and star.

Review
Little White Lies

Anora Review: An Amazing, Hypermodern Concept for a Film

By David Jenkins

2024-10-29

Jenkins praises Anora as a hypermodern concept functioning as both class critique and commentary on wealths relationship to character.

Review
Collider

'Anora' Review: Sean Baker's Spectacular Palme d'Or-Winner

By Chase Hutchinson

2024-05-21

9/10 -- Bakers most searing, shattering work to date.

Review