Neon has acquired the North American distribution rights for Anora, a new dramedy by Sean Baker that is slated for release in 2024.

Although the film is already in post-production, details about the plot have not yet been released by its producers, who include Baker as well as Samantha Quan and Alex Coco.

Baker is listed as writer and director for Anora, whose cast includes Yuriy Borisov, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Mikey Madison, and Vache Tovmasyan.

Earlier films by Baker include Red Rocket and Tangerine, both released in 2015. His 2017 film, The Florida Project, earned an Oscar nomination. Tangerine, which debuted at Sundance, was shot on several iPhones in depicting the travails of a transgender sex worker, in keeping with Baker’s focus on marginalized populations. The filmmaker became obsessed with homemade movies as a child, when his mother took him to see Universal Monster films at their local library in New Jersey.



Baker has also created programming for television, having been one of the original creators of the Greg the Bunny sitcom. He also worked with Spencer Chinoy and Dan Milano on a spinoff called Warren the Ape, which aired for a season on MTV.

The Anora deal is only one of several projects that Neon is currently involved in.

Earlier this week, the studio said it was planning to produce They Follow as a sequel to the 2014 cult classic It Follows. Neon also recently acquired Ava DuVernay’s Origin and Zak Hilditch’s We Bury the Dead. Other works on its plate include Pamela Adlon’s Babes, Michal Mann’s Ferrari, and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall.

The deal involving Anora was the product of negotiations between Neon’s president of acquisitions Jason Wald and FilmNation’s CEO Glen Basner. FilmNation Entertainment handles worldwide rights to Anora, which it has also licensed to other entities in France, Israel, Australia and New Zealand.

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