The 2025 Academy Awards concluded with a flourish, etching legacies aplenty, but none rang out as resoundingly because the glistening indie romantic comedy-drama Anora, which commandeered 5 statuettes — Greatest Image to Greatest Director, the evening’s most vaunted haul.
Sean Baker, Anora’s multihyphenate helmsman, made historical past with 4 particular person wins, a cataclysmic feat to surmount, however the highlight additionally enunciated Mikey Madison taking dwelling the Academy Award for Greatest Actress at 25. Madison’s outing because the salacious stripper Anora beguiled audiences, however do you know the actress first sauntered onto the large display screen wielding a knife in a frenzied bid to assault Brad Pitt’s personal Oscar-winning portrayal of Cliff Sales space?
Within the 2019 interval romp As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by Quentin Tarantino who years later would current Baker along with his Greatest Director trophy, a teenage Madison embodied the eccentric Susan “Sadie” Atkins, one of many many acolytes of Charles Manson who — in actuality and never the movie — slew Roman Polanski’s eight-month-pregnant spouse and actress, Sharon Tate, and her pal, hairstylist Jay Sebring, in 1969.
Not like the grounded scale of Anora, that glistening ode to Hollywood’s golden age flaunted a roster of Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, and extra, whose liaisons elevated its grandeur, alongside the youthful figures who later galvanized the 97th Oscars’ Greatest Image race. These embrace Madison, Margaret Qualley (The Substance) and Austin Butler (Dune: Half Two), whose efforts elevated the 1969-set story.
Like Anora, As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood garnered a myriad of nods and clinched Pitt Greatest Supporting Actor and Greatest Manufacturing Design on the Academy Awards. A summer season juggernaut, it additionally accrued $392 million worldwide in opposition to a $90 million price range. And evidently, Madison’s fleeting look there fueled her rise. The Anora star quickly manifested her penchant for risky roles as Amber Freeman in 2022’s Scream — second consecutive movie the place her character is ready on hearth.
Sean Baker, struck by Madison’s unapologetically violent turns in Tarantino’s opus and the darkish but comedic tone within the slasher installment, took an unorthodox path to formulate a mere synopsis, which he pitched to Madison. It was solely after her affirmation did The Florida Mission director flesh out the tragicomedy story, a raffle that was actualized as Anora and precipitated each of them Oscar gold.
Reminding viewers of Tarantino’s gritty and uncooked dialogue-drenched aptitude, in addition to Fairly Lady’s bourgeois gloss and Uncut Gems’ rush, Anora spun a maelstrom of a saga which witnesses Madison’s titular stripper hanging an unique cope with Russian oligarch Vanya, a bond that deepens till his household and a bunch of Armenian goons meddle. As solicitation spirals into vehement shrieks, a chaotic bid to undo the actions of its younger grownup couple ensues.
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