“I think Anora is a great film, I really do,” the legendary English filmmaker Mike Leigh told The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast this week while promoting his new film, Hard Truths. “I think it’s massively impressive.”

Leigh, a seven-time Oscar nominee whose films have won the top prizes of the Cannes and Venice film festivals, went on to say of American Sean Baker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner, which centers on a stripper (Mikey Madison) who gets romantically involved with a wealthy Russian customer with mob ties, “Their performances are solid and there’s no self-indulgent tricks in it,” adding, “At first you think, ‘Okay, right, there’s all this sex going on and these kids and blah, blah, blah.’ Then you think, ‘Well…’ And then the shit hits the fan.”

Summarized Leigh: “Boy, it’s really good.”

Both Anora, which is being distributed by Neon,...