A day after Anora swept several major categories at the Oscars, an anonymous social media post threatened to throw cold water on its uplifting narrative of the low-budget indie that could.

On Crew Stories, a popular below-the-line social media hub, one unnamed critic alleged that the $6 million production — and its auteur director, Sean Baker — avoided the major crew union IATSE for part of its 2023 shoot, keeping costs low by “screwing over [Baker’s] crew” and depriving them of working hours they could use to be eligible for union co-administered health benefits. Once the labor group attempted to unionize the production — which it eventually accomplished and tweeted about on March 16 of that year — the production fought it “tooth and nail” while Baker had a “hissy fit” and wasn’t friendly to the crew after, the post alleged.

Though anonymous Internet mudslinging about acclaimed films is nothing new, the description was widely circulated within the industry.