The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a club notoriously made of old, White male voters, rarely picks films that delight, over a grand narrative, when it comes to Best Picture.

So serious are the Oscars about themselves that it’s only four times that a film has taken home both the Cannes festival’s best honour — known to go to more edgy, experimental and foreign cinema — and the Academy’s. The last one was Parasite in 2019; before that it happened in 1955. On Monday, Anora joined the list.

Even in that august company, Anora is an exception, with explicit content that usually leaves the Academy cold and its unusually humanising depiction of the group of Russians whose paths cross with the titular character — Hollywood has rarely accorded them such warmth in a mainstream film.

As Anora proceeds — a trot at 2 hours and 19 minutes compared to some of its more “serious” and heavy-on-their-feet contenders — none of them sticks to form.

Anora or Ani, as she prefers to be called, is neither the sex worker with a heart of gold nor one with a pot of bad luck. She is anti-Cinderella and anti-Pretty Woman, a 23-year-old who isn’t looking out for a fairy grandmother........

© Indian Express