What Went Right: anora

About this episode

The hosts discuss the film Anora, its accolades, and their differing opinions on its storytelling and character arcs.

Poles apart - and not the dancing kind! Anora won the 2024 Palme d’Or at Cannes and five out of six categories at the 2025 Academy awards including Best Original Screen Play and Best Film. Plus, it was nominated for a multitude of other awards and won its fair share. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an aggregated rating of 93%. That’s impressive. However, we disagree about What Went Right. I saw how the writer director crafted a pessimistic story arc combined with a negative character arc. Valerie believes that nothing went right in this movie because of the characters, dialogue, and lack of originality. If you’ve seen the movie, let us know what you think. -M

People in this episode

Hosts: Melanie Hill, Valerie Francis

Topics covered

• film analysis
• award-winning films
• storytelling
• character development
• movie critique

Keywords

• Anora
• Palme d’Or
• Academy awards
• film critique
• story arc
• character arc
• Rotten Tomatoes

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Rotten Tomatoes

Books & works: Anora

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