First Anora trailer has awards season written all over it

This time of the year is always exciting for film buffs, as it’s usually when we first get to watch the Oscar race begin to take shape. Last week, anyone not lucky enough to sit in the Cannes audience in May got their first glimpse at The Substance, Coralie Fargeat’s Best Screenplay-winning body horror flick. But while the Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley-led film is undeniably exciting, Sean Baker’s Anora is this year’s most anticipated project by far.

The Palme d’Or-winning dramedy has been billed simply as “a love story from Sean Baker starring Mikey Madison.” The film actually screened its first trailer before a few showings of Longlegs this past weekend, but here it is for anyone not brave enough to sit through those heart-attack-inducing 100 minutes:

Per Variety, the follows follows “Anora (Mikey Madison), an Uzbek-American stripper whose boss often sets her up with Russian-speaking clients. One night, she meets Vanya (Mark Eidelstein), the wealthy young son of a Russian oligarch who pays to make her his girlfriend for the week. Unexpectedly, the two fall in love and elope—but the fairytale is threatened when Vanya’s parents find out.”

The trailer itself is as tumultuous as it is enticing. Set to Blondie’s “Dreaming,” the hazy camera watches Anora as she dives headlong into her relationship with Vanya, following the couple from a glittering chapel in Vegas to the cool-toned reality of their new situation. Breakout star Mikey Madison also seems perfectly suited for this role, slipping between euphoric joy and searing anger with ease.

This isn’t Sean Baker’s first foray into this particular subject matter. During a Cannes press conference (via Variety), the Florida Project, Tangerine, and Red Rocket director spoke about telling the “million stories” from the world of sex workers. “If there is one intention with all of these films, I would say it’s by telling human stories, by telling stories that are hopefully universal,” he said. “It’s helping remove the stigma that’s been applied to this livelihood, that’s always been applied to this livelihood.”

Anora premieres October 18 in select theaters.