Sean Baker, Mikey Madison Thrill London Film Festival With ‘Anora’

Sean Baker urged moviegoers to go see his Palme d’Or winning film Anora on the big screen at the BFI London Film Festival on Friday.

The director spoke alongside his titular star Mikey Madison shortly before the U.K. premiere of the film at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where Baker said people must see that “adult films” can be made “without superheroes and explosions”.

The pair spoke briefly with festival director Kristy Matheson about how they came to work together and why Coney Island was ripe ground for Baker’s twisted Cinderella story.

Neon’s fifth Cannes winner in a row is a screwball dramedy starring Madison (Scream, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as the titular character, a sex worker in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, who gets mixed up with the son of a Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eidelstein.

Anora premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, following that up with screenings at Telluride, Toronto and San Sebastián.

After a showing of the film on Thursday at the Ham Yard Hotel in London, Baker and Madison shared how the sex scenes were shot. When asked if the crew used intimacy coordinators, Baker said: “No, we did not. I think it’s very important for an actor to have that option. And of course, we offered both Mikey and Mark [Eidelstein]… that option. But also I have directed sex themes throughout my career, so I was very comfortable doing so and also as a producer on my film, the number one priority is the safety and comfort of my actors.”

“So by the time we got to shooting, I think we were so comfortable that it was approached in such an incredibly clinical way,” he added. “There was no improv. We like to call them sex shots, not sex scenes, because they’re blocked, they’re calculated.”

Madison added: “We talked at length about each scene, what it would look like. And Sean and his wife and producing partner Sammy [Samantha Quan] would even block out what it would look like [on screen].”

The film’s producers, including Baker’s wife Samantha Quan, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter in late September to discuss how the movie got sex work right.

Anora will be released Oct. 18 by Neon in the U.S., and on Nov. 1 in the U.K.