Indie hit “Anora” really cleaned up at the Oscars last night

Despite its shoestring $6 million budget and relatively unknown cast, thrilling indie comedy-drama “Anora” won big at the 97th Academy Awards last night, after star Mikey Madison pipped favorite Demi Moore to Best Actress and writer-director Sean Baker scooped four gongs, including Best Picture, to equal a record set by Walt Disney himself 70 years ago. 

Elsewhere, Adrien Brody received his second Best Actor award for “The Brutalist” and delivered an emotional (and long) speech; there were first wins for films from Latvia and Brazil; and the Academy staged a kind of weird tribute to James Bond, after Amazon took creative control of the franchise recently.  

In their acceptance speech for the Best Picture award, and practically the final words of the ceremony, Sean Baker and the “Anora” team emphasized the movie’s indie credentials. The winners thanked production company Neon, which was only founded eight years ago, and declared “long live independent film,” as their work — which took 1/24th of last year’s winner “Oppenheimer” at the box office — romped to victory.

Financial independence

While the success of Christopher Nolan’s atomic blockbuster bucked the trend of Academy voters’ recent tendency to lean toward lower-budget, artier offerings (like “Parasite,” Neon’s only other Best Picture winner), this year’s top Oscar performer’s box office takings look a little light, even by modern standards. Besides pandemic-era winners “Nomadland” and “Coda,” which were hampered by shuttered cinemas and limited theatrical releases, “Anora” is the lowest-grossing Best Picture of the last 45 years, having taken just shy of $41 million at theaters around the world.