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The idea for the movie Anora, which is predicted to win an Oscar and in which Armenian actors Karen Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan starred, was incubated for almost 20 years.

Director Sean Baker and Karagulian have been friends for over 25 years. Karen has starred in every movie of Sean. For a long time, they had the idea to write about the Russian American community of Brighton Beach because Karen has ties to this community, and his wife is Russian American—she even played the wife of his character in the church scene.

Sean and Karen even once wrote a script for a comedy film about friends from this community, which, however, was never made. It wasn't until Sean's movie Red Rocket (2021) that he decided it was time to revisit the idea—and that's when they came up with Anora.

Armenian actor Vache Tovmasyan was brought in for the film by Karagulian, who was a fan of his stand-up.

According to Tovmasyan, Sean Baker called him and said he had seen his comedy after Karen suggested him for the movie. Vache then looked up Karen on social media and found that he had messaged him five years earlier, praising his comedy. Vache then responded to Karen's message.

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