‘I want to thank the sex worker community’: Oscar winners from ‘Anora’ — about a stripper turned hooker — speak in lockstep

The big winner from Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony was independent movie “Anora.”

It’s about “a young sex worker from Brooklyn,” who “gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled,” the Internet Movie Database says.

‘Most of Hollywood is trite and banal, but this is wicked.’

The Washington Post noted that “Anora” is “in no way a celebration of the title character’s line of work — Ani (Madison) is a stripper at a Manhattan men’s club who negotiates a week of ‘companionship’ with the spoiled son (Mark Eydelshteyn) of a Russian oligarch — but in no way does it condemn her, either.”

On Sunday night, “Anora” took home five golden statues out of six nominations.

The movie’s creator, Sean Baker, won four Oscars for Film Editing, Original Screenplay, Directing, and Best Picture (as one of the movie’s producers). Its star Mikey Madison — a first-time nominee — got the surprise nod for Best Actress.

But arguably what stands out most were the acceptance speeches from Baker and Madison, both of whom gave big shout-outs to the “sex worker community.”

“I want to thank the sex worker community,” Baker told the Academy Awards audience during his speech for his Original Screenplay win. “They have shared their stories. They have shared life experience with me over the years. My deepest respect. Thank you. I share this with you.”

Madison during her Oscars speech gave the crowd a near mirror-image of Baker’s address: “I also just want to again recognize and honor the sex worker community. I will continue to support and be an ally. All of the incredible people, the women that I’ve had the privilege of meeting from that community has been one of the highlights of this … entire incredible experience.”

Variety added that during Madison’s acceptance speech at the earlier British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, she offered similar words: “I do want to just take a moment to recognize the sex worker community. I just want to say that I see you. You deserve respect and human decency. I will always be a friend and ally.”

What’s more, the Associated Press said after Baker collected his fourth Oscar, he declared backstage that sex work “has an incredible, unfair stigma applied to it” and offered that it should be decriminalized.

Pushback

As you might guess, not everyone is on board with lionizing the “sex worker community.” Here’s a smattering of pushback under an ABC News X post about Madison’s speech:

• “There’s no honor in being a sex worker,” one commenter wrote. “Hope that helps!”
• “The porn and pimp industries are celebrating, surely,” another user said.
• “Most of Hollywood is trite and banal, but this is wicked,” another commenter stated.
• “Hollywood loves degeneracy,” another user wrote. “Who would have guessed?”
• “Being pro-human trafficking and modern-day slavery is quite the flex,” another commenter said.
• “Don’t know who she is. Don’t know the movie,” another user observed. “But what I do know is that prostitution harms women. It doesn’t matter if you give it a PC name so people don’t get their feelings hurt. The dehumanization of women through the use of their bodies is nothing to support or celebrate.”

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