By Lucia Caporalini
Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ won the Oscar for Best Film at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony amid controversies that involved some of the hottest films of the year.
‘Anora’, which follows the story of a sex worker (Mikey Madison) falling in love with the son of a Russian oligarch, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival and has since swept different prizes this awards season.
Intimacy controversy
Madison, who also brought home the award for Best Actress at only 25 years old, revealed that she refused the presence of an intimacy coordinator on set for the film.
Speaking at Variety’s Actors on Actors, the actress said: “The filmmakers offered me, if I wanted, an intimacy coordinator.
“Mark Eydelshteyn, who plays Ivan, and I decided it would be best to keep it small.
“My character is a sex worker, and I had seen Sean’s films and know his dedication to authenticity. I was ready for it. As an actress, I approached it as a job.”
The choice sparked a huge online discourse among people who suggested it should be Madison’s choice and others who supported the notion that the presence of an intimacy coordinator on set should be compulsory.
One X user wrote: “Sean Baker is a sleazy f*** for even asking Mikey Madison if she wanted an intimacy coordinator when it should be a mandatory requirement.”
The film won five Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Director.
AI backlash
Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”, starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce, also made headlines in January after the film’s editor, Dávid Jancsó, revealed that AI was used to improve the Hungarian dialogue of the movie’s stars, including Brody, who on Sunday won his second Oscar for Best Actor.
In the film, Brody plays a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who moves to the US after the end of World War II.
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“There was a tremendous amount of dialect work that needed to be done – I had to memorize Hungarian language,” Brody told Vanity Fair.
“We coached [Brody and Jones], and they did a fabulous job. But we also wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference,” Jancsó explained.
The interview received backlash online and director Brady Corbet stepped in to clarify the situation with a statement to Deadline which read: “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own.
“They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy.
“No English language was changed.”
As a result, it was reported that the Academy was looking into making the disclosure of AI technology use in films mandatory before the announcement of the 2026 Oscars rules, according to Variety.
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Ren Azrack Escosio 
Jheruleene Anne Ramos 
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