It’s been less than 10 years since Mikey Madison made her feature debut at 16, playing the titular lead in American indie Liza, Liza: Skies Are Grey. Since then she has continued to build her career with notable roles as Pamela Adlon’s daughter in the FX series Better Things, Manson Family member Sadie in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, the Ghostface killer in the latest iteration of Scream, and most recently, as Natalie Portman’s friend in the Apple+ crime series Lady in the Lake. But she has created her biggest splash and put herself in awards season contention with her vibrant role as a sex worker involved with an oligarch’s son in Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning Anora.
Our spotlight on Mikey Madison and Anora includes honoring her with an MVFF Award, marking the latest step in a burgeoning and brilliant career.
Anora:The winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Sean Baker’s latest indie marvel explores a familiar subject from the writer-director—the lives of sex workers—but in a far more propulsive and, ultimately, heartbreaking manner. Mikey Madison delivers a breakthrough performance as Anora, a New Yorker working at a strip club, who meets and impulsively weds young, rich Russian Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). Anora’s Cinderella story seems destined for a happy ending until Ivan’s corrupt oligarch father sends his goons to annul the marriage. As it segues from screwball comedy to one-crazy-night thriller, Anora offers further proof that the auteur behind The Florida Project (MVFF40) and Red Rocket (MVFF44) has a distinctive perspective on those residing on the margins of American society, who fight to stay afloat while trying to reach their dreams. So hilarious, yet so sad—swooningly romantic, yet so sobering—the film is powered by Madison’s comedic, gripping turn. Few characters this year are more messily alive or more ferociously rendered.
