Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning ‘Anora’ to close MAMI Mumbai Film Festival

Director Sean Baker, Palme d’Or award winner for the film “Anora”, poses during a photocall after the closing ceremony of the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Sarah Meyssonnier

Sean Baker’s Anora, which won the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will be the closing film of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, to be held in Mumbai from October 19 to October 24, 2024.

The MAMI screening will mark the film’s South Asian premiere.

Baker’s latest narrates the story of Ani (Mikey Madison), a Brooklyn sex worker who gets mixed up with the Russian mafia. Baker, who served as the head of jury for the International Competition section at MAMI in 2018, his known for his empathetic, pathbreaking films exploring marginalised identities, as in Tangerine and The Florida Project.

Anu Rangachar, Head of International Programming at MAMI, said in a statement, “It’s a fitting tribute to close the festival with one of MAMI’s most loved alumni Sean Baker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora – a searing critique on wealth, privilege and the American dream, brought to life by Mickey Madison’s luminous performance.”

This year’s edition of MAMI will feature 110 films from over 45 countries. Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance are some of this year’s international selections.