Oscar season is well underway, and there’s one name on the top of every Hollywood insider’s list: Anora. The latest from filmmaker Sean Baker (The Florida Project), the movie stars Mikey Madison (Better Things) as a sex worker in NYC named Anora. While on the job, Anora meets Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, the two become enraptured with each other, and they quickly elope. From there, the movie depicts their tumultuous relationship, which only gets more complicated when Vanya’s parents arrive in the city determined to end their marriage. Anora made waves earlier this year when it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (the first American movie to do so since 2011’s Tree of Life), and has since picked up five Golden Globe noms. And considering that you’ll be hard-pressed to find a performance more compelling than the one Madison — who completely transforms and transfixes viewers — it’s no wonder that she has been pegged as a potential Oscar frontrunner.
