Yahoo News ‘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.
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“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.
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