Inside the Los Angeles film critics vote that gave ‘Anora’ best picture

The Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. Those included Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-honored “Anora,” which took the award for best picture and saw two of its actors cited: Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov. GLENN WHIPP: Josh, when you asked me to create a file for this story before the weekend, I put a placeholder headline atop it: “Los Angeles Film Critics give ‘Anora’ best picture.” And, lo and behold, we did just that, checking off an item that has been on my to-do list for the past seven years, ever since Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project” lost our best picture prize by one vote to “Call Me by Your Name.” I am thrilled that we’ve finally given an honor to Baker, particularly for “Anora,” a movie that seamlessly shifts between comedy and tragedy, attuned to class and privilege, existing on the edges of an America rarely captured on film. Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Mike Leigh’s movie “Hard Truths.” “Anora” also took two of our acting citations, with star Mikey Madison sharing lead performance honors with Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Mike Leigh’s piercing drama “Hard Truths,” while Yura Borisov won supporting performance alongside Kieran Culkin from Jesse Eisenberg‘s odd-couple road movie “A Real Pain.” Madison and Borisov share a palpable chemistry from the moment they set eyes on each other in “Anora,” though you could hardly call it a “meet cute.” They’re introduced during a home invasion, with Borisov, a brooding Russian, brought in as the muscle to convince Madison’s sex worker to annul her marriage to the son of a Russian oligarch. LAFCA opting for “Anora” following New York’s choice of “The Brutalist” as its best film would seem to follow suit here.