“I want to dedicate this to all the sex workers around the world,” declared Sean Baker as he accepted the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Already an auspicious moment with an American director winning big at the French ceremony, it was an even bigger deal that Barker’s film, Anora, which follows a sex worker’s relationship with a Russian oligarch’s son, took home the top prize. His achievement—and dedication—highlighted a significant shift in the cinematic landscape: a revival of nuanced portrayals of sex work in contemporary cinema.
In recent years, films centering on sex workers have garnered accolades across major festivals and award ceremonies. Be it the Venice Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, or even the Academy Awards, these stories have captivated critics and audiences alike. Baker's success follows Ninja Thyberg's Pleasure, which was nominated for the World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance 2021, and Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things, which earned several awards, including Best Actress and Best Production Design at the 2024 Oscars.
This renaissance represents a return to a theme that has fascinated international auteurs for decades, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the current wave of films offers a fresh approach that challenges societal norms and expectations. Here, CULTURED rounds up 11 films from both decades past and the current zeitgeist that lens sex work with the respect it deserves.
Anora (2024)
Run Time: 139 Minutes
The most recent addition to the cultural moment, this film explores the relationship between a New York stripper and the son of a Russian oligarch. Mikey Madison blazes as Anora, whose calculated seduction of the oligarch's heir (Mark Eydelshteyn) ignites a powder keg of class warfare. With grit and empathy, Baker explores these power dynamics with his signature sincerity.
In theaters October 18
Vivre sa vie (1962)
Run Time: 85 Minutes
Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave classic Vivre sa vie stars Anna Karina as Nana, a young Parisian woman who turns to prostitution in a search for independence. The film is structured into 12 distinct episodes, each capturing moments from Nana's life as she navigates her new reality. Blending documentary-style realism with philosophical reflections, Godard creates a stark yet poetic portrayal of a Nana’s fight for autonomy.
Streaming: MAX
Poor Things (2023)
Run Time: 166 Minutes
In an Oscar-winning turn, Emma Stone is Bella Baxter, a Frankenstein Monster, this time with a child's mind in an adult body. Director Yorgos Lanthimos explores the Victorian landscape with gleeful absurdity as Bella careens through a surrealist wonderland of carnal discovery. Resurrected by Willem Dafoe's mad scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter, Bella's unfiltered appetite for pleasure becomes a radical act of self-determination. Lanthimos's opulent, grotesque vision challenges viewers to reconsider autonomy in all its messy glory.
Belle de Jour (1967)
Run Time: 100 Minutes
Luis Buñuel's Golden Lion-winning masterpiece detonates bourgeois sexual mores with subversive glee. Catherine Deneuve lends her icy poise to Séverine, a respectable housewife indulging her masochistic fantasies as a part-time sex worker. As Séverine navigates increasingly baroque scenarios, the film evolves from titillation to a scathing indictment of class hypocrisy and sexual power dynamics.
Streaming: The Criterion Channel and MAX
Pleasure (2021)
Run Time: 105 Minutes
Ninja Thyberg's feature debut peels back the silicon veneer of the porn industry. Newcomer Sofia Kappel embodies Bella Cherry, a 19-year-old Swede who plunges into LA's adult film world with naive ambition. Thyberg's quasi-documentary lens captures the sterile banality of porn sets and the brutal backstage politics. It’s a portrait of a young woman negotiating her boundaries and ambitions.
Streaming: Paramount+
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Run Time: 201 minutes
Chantal Akerman's seminal film—named Best Film of All Time by Sight and Sound—presents an intimate and meticulous examination of three days in the life of Jeanne Dielman, a widowed housewife. Through extended, static shots and an unwavering focus on everyday tasks, Akerman crafts a hypnotic exploration of domesticity, routine, and underlying despair. This feminist landmark challenges viewers to consider the often unseen intersections of daily life and sex work, making it a powerful and thought-provoking cinematic experience.
Streaming: The Criterion Channel
Zola (2020)
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Janicza Bravo's adaptation of A'Ziah "Zola" King's viral 148-tweet saga hurls audiences into a neon-soaked fever dream of a Florida strip trip gone awry. Taylour Paige embodies Zola with charisma, her sardonic voiceover narrating the reality of sex work in the social media age. Bravo's direction captures the frenetic energy of King's original narrative while sharpening its edges into a biting commentary on race, gender, and digital commodification.
Streaming: MAX
Klute (1971)
Run Time: 114 Minutes
Alan J. Pakula's neo-noir slices through genre conventions with surgical precision. Jane Fonda's Oscar-winning portrayal of Bree Daniels—a razor-sharp call girl caught in a deadly web—rewrites the femme fatale playbook. Fonda infuses Bree with vulnerability and steely resolve, her sessions with a psychiatrist peeling back the layers of a woman weighing the pros and cons of her profession. The late Donald Sutherland's stoic Detective Klute serves as both foil and an unexpected ally, their uneasy alliance challenging preconceptions about protection and the protector.
Streaming: Prime Video
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Run Time: 113 minutes
This Oscar-winning drama explores the unexpected friendship between a naive Texan hustler, Joe Buck (Jon Voight), and a streetwise, ailing con man, Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), as they navigate life in New York. Raw and poignant, the film broke new ground when it won the Academy Award for Best Picture, the first and only X-rated film to do so. It brought male sex work into mainstream discourse, challenging societal norms and perceptions at the time.
Streaming: Tubi
My Hustler (1965)
Run Time: 67 minutes
Andy Warhol's My Hustler examines male sex work on Fire Island. The film centers on young hustler Paul (Paul America) and his older client, along with two acquaintances who objectify Paul in their discussions of him. With its long takes and improvised dialogue, Warhol's film explores themes of desire, power dynamics, and commodification.
Streaming: Internet Archive
