In Anora, Sean Baker’s bold Oscar-winning film following a stripper’s whirlwind romance with the son of a Russian oligarch, you’ll hear a little bit of Northeast Ohio. Three songs by Chagrin Falls-based artist Brit Fox — “Short Notice,” "Mazuma" and “Frosty” — appear in the soundtrack.
The edgy “Short Notice” plays in a short car scene, and in a more pivotal moment, the sultry “Frosty” sets the scene where Ani (Mikey Madison) performs a private dance in a strip club for Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn). "Mazuma" is played during other scenes in the club.
“We had no idea it was even gonna get an Oscar,” Fox says. “That was not in our view.”
It didn’t win just one Oscar. Anora swept the awards show, earning five Oscars: best picture, best actress, best original screenplay, best film editing and best director. That’s more award wins than Disney’s Wicked — and all for a relatively low-budget, indie production.
“The independent spirit around this film is, like, mind-blowing, and the fact that people that have literally come from addictions and toxic relationships and just the underdog spirit of nobody believing in them, and they make something happen because they kept believing in themselves, is the most beautiful thing in the world to me,” Fox says, “and I'm really glad to be a part of a story like that.”
Fox says her experiences connected with Baker’s inspirations for Anora, which are centered around sex work and strip clubs.
“While I was doing some of my writing, I was also working at adult clubs in Cleveland, and so I think it just resonated with him, and he put it in the film for what, at the time, was just supposed to be film festivals,” Fox says.
The work with Anora marks a new career highlight for Fox, who says she started pursuing music about a decade ago in response to a traumatic experience with domestic violence with an ex-partner — and which culminated in him kidnapping her. To cope after the incident, Fox started journaling, and that turned into writing poetry and then song lyrics.
Not long after, while attending Kent State University, friends invited her into the studio to record some of her music.
“I really went into hermit mode. I didn’t even feel comfortable leaving my house unless I was just going to work to make money or with my friends going to the studio,” she says. “That’s literally all I was doing.”
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Fox picked up production skills, learning audio engineering and recording, and ramped up her songwriting. She branched out and worked with other musicians in Northeast Ohio, and soon, she gained traction in the music industry. She has composed and produced music for various TV and movie networks through Brit Fox Studios, and even wrote a song for the movie Lyle, Lyle Crocodile.
On a local level, she regularly works with fellow Northeast Ohio-based musicians, and in 2022 she collaborated with Myles Garrett, Darius Garland and other athletes for a Boys and Girls Club charity song. She also produced the music for an episode of Pin Shot with Jimmy Hanlin, a local web series about golf.
Music remains an outlet for the now-established songwriter.
“Being able to see something that I took from a bad situation and being able to feed my family with it, that’s the thing I’m the most proud of,” Fox says. “It’s not much; it’s not like we’re balling every night, but I’m just glad that I can do what I love for the people I love.”
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