Oscar Win for Explicit ‘Anora’ Demonstrates Hollywood Is ‘Out of Touch’ Critics Say

An Oscar win for a graphic film about a sex worker at Sunday's ceremony extended the trend of R-rated movies taking Best Picture -- while also highlighting Hollywood's disconnect from mainstream audiences, according to family media experts.

Anora became the 15th R-rated movie in the past 18 years to win Best Picture and, perhaps, the most sexually explicit film in that span. The MPAA rated it R for "strong sexual content throughout, graphic nudity, pervasive language, and drug use." Reviewers who watched the film say the first 45 minutes are filled with sexuality and nudity.

The Oscar R-rated trend is a departure from previous decades. The 1980s saw seven Best Picture winners rated either PG or PG-13, led by such films as Chariots of Fire and Amadeus. In the 1970s, half of the Best Picture winners were PG.

"The fact that a graphic film about a sex worker won Best Picture is just another reminder of just how out of touch Hollywood is with the rest of America," Melissa Henson, vice president at the Parents Television and Media Council, told Crosswalk Headlines. "It is rare these days to see movies honored that reflect the values and life experiences of everyday Americans. Many of the films that are most lauded by the film industry not only do not share our values, they are openly antagonistic to them. But the most baffling thing is that Hollywood doesn't seem to care that these movies aren't connecting with audiences and are bombing at the box office."

Anora tells the story of a Brooklyn-based sex worker who falls in love with the son of a Russian oligarch. It took in $16 million domestically and failed to rank among the Top 50 grossing movies of 2024. (By comparison, the top-grossing film of 2024, Inside Out 2, took in $652 million.)

Adam Holz, editor of Focus on the Family's PluggedIn, noted that sexually explicit films in Hollywood are nothing new, even if they're winning more awards now than in the past. PluggedIn offers reviews of entertainment from a biblical perspective.

"We can go back to 1967 for The Graduate or 1969 for Midnight Cowboy, for instance, and find explicit themes and content that were celebrated by the Oscars," Holz told Crosswalk Headlines. "The Graduate, about an older woman seducing a young man, had seven nominations, including one for Best Picture. Midnight Cowboy involved gay themes, was rated R and won Best Picture that year. More recently (1996), Leaving Las Vegas, about a desperate prostitute in Las Vegas, nabbed four nominations as well. And 1999's American Beauty -- a deeply disturbing movie -- involves a man going through a midlife crisis who fantasizes about (and quite nearly succeeds in) seducing his teen daughter's best friend.

"The entertainment establishment has long celebrated racy films that challenged conventional or traditional social mores with regard to the purpose and place of sexuality in our lives. The cliche of a 'hooker with a heart of gold' has been with us a very long time, and Best Picture winner Anora, about an escort who falls in love with a client, is just the latest in a long line of movies that have emphasized that worldview."

Still, Holz believes "we have increasingly seen a shift toward the embrace of 'sex positive' perspectives in our culture and in entertainment, wherein any expression of 'authentic' sexuality is applauded."

"That's especially true in stories that allegedly 'empower' women or in stories that critique and reject patriarchy, repression, and any vestiges of the shame that allegedly stems from a Judeo-Christian worldview.

Lead actress Mikey Madison of Anora thanked the sex worker community during her acceptance speech, declaring she will "continue to support and be an ally." Holz noted that many in that community "have been forced into that lifestyle through trafficking, poverty, and abusive relationships."

"This movie, while harsh in places, still romanticizes 'sex workers' as women who are allegedly completely in control of their own identity and sexuality, who choose sex work as an expression of who they are," he said. "Our culture is desperately searching for transcendent meaning. And if God gets tossed out the window, sexuality becomes one substitute for people looking for an experience bigger than themselves."

The Hollywood view of sex is in opposition to the biblical view, Holz said.

"These days, mainstream culture's lone sexual ethic is consent," Holz told Crosswalk Headlines. "As long as that's present, any expression of sexual experience is seen as a positive, beautiful thing, to be embraced and celebrated uncritically, lest anyone feel 'shamed' -- in stark contrast to a biblical understanding which sees sexuality as reflecting God's image in male and female in the context of a covenant marriage where that intimate 'knowing' of one another is protected by lifelong commitment. As this embrace of sex positivity has taken hold, the ability to ask critical questions about the purpose and place of sexuality in our lives has become nearly impossible. As a result, even trying to have a conversation about the value of modesty for women often gets automatically rejected as patriarchal slut shaming."

Holz sees a conflict between the MeToo movement and Hollywood's continued push for sexually explicit content.

"One of the great ironies of explicit roles for women in Hollywood is that even as part of that culture has decried abusive men in the MeToo movement, one of the surest and fastest paths to an Oscar nomination for a woman is to shed her clothes," he said. "We saw that this year with Anora and The Substance, last year with Poor Things (starring Emma Stone, who won). It's frequently called 'brave,' a word we heard a great deal in regard to Demi Moore's performance in The Substance this year. But the irony remains that 'bravery' is often code for a role where a famous actress sheds her clothes."

Henson, of the Parents Television and Media Council, agreed.

"It's something of an open secret in Hollywood that for any film to be considered a serious contender for the Best Picture award, it needs to have an R rating," Henson told Crosswalk Headlines. "That's why so many movies include completely gratuitous sex scenes or unnecessary foul language that could be easily edited out to give the film a PG rating. They seem to be inserted for the lone purpose of earning an R so that it will be taken seriously by the Academy.

"After The King's Speech won its best picture Oscar, a scene containing multiple f-words was cut and the film was re-released in theaters with a PG-13 rating. If the scene could be removed so easily without compromising the integrity of the film, why did it need to be included in the first place? To get the R rating so that the Academy would consider it a serious contender for Best Picture."

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Rodin Eckenroth

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel. 

Originally published March 07, 2025.