‘Anora’ Palme D’Or Winner Sean Baker On The Plight Of Theatrical: “Discouraging” But Sees “A Rising Film Culture” – Cannes

In accepting the Palme d’Or today for his latest movie Anora, Sean Baker gave a shoutout for the survival of cinema.

At the Cannes Film Festival awards presser he said he hopes his movie is “certainly one step toward helping” theaters.

“You see theaters closing every day unfortunately. I follow a Twitter feed about theaters closing,” reflected Baker on the plight of theatrical, “I grew up going to movie, I grew up going to theaters, that’s where I want my movies shown as a filmmaker.”

“(It’s) very discouraging when I see this,” said Baker about the state of cinema, “It’s very scary.”

That said, there’s some hope per Baker: “I see a rising film culture in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco. I see young people who want to go and see movies in a theater.”

“This isn’t exactly a mainstream movie,” said Baker about his latest which follows a stripper played by Better Things Mikey Madison who marries a Russian oligarch’s son. “Hopefully it reminds mainstream audiences that these films still exist.”

Given his Russian heavy cast, Baker was asked whether Anora was getting a release in Russia.

He responded, “Hard question for me to answer to the embargo; we don’t know. Let’s see what the future holds.”

Anora repped domestic distributor NEON’s fifth Palme d’Or winner in a row. The movie is 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critics.