It’s Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and Sin-Dee is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn’t been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the working girl and her best friend, Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own repercussions of infidelity.

In 2015, filmmaker Sean Baker teamed up with actresses Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor to give us Tangerine, a movie that above all else is about queer friendship. Set over a wild Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, the film follows Sin-Dee (Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Taylor), bffs on a mission to get to the bottom of a rumour. The neo-screwball comedy that happens along the way is a deeply hilarious and heartfelt journey that feels very much like a sister film to Baker’s latest, the Palme d’Or-winning, potential Oscar frontrunner Anora.

Tangerine was shot entirely on iPhones (3 iPhone 5Ss, to be precise), and was also the first film to ever launch an Academy Award campaign for openly trans actresses in Rodriguez and Taylor. Though Oscar noms sadly didn’t happen (and they both very much deserved!), they did get Spirit and Gotham Award nominations, with Taylor winning both.

As Anora hits cinemas (it opens in Toronto this week!), and we head into an Oscar season that will heavily feature Sean Baker *and* potentially the first openly trans actor ever to be nominated (Karla Sofía Gascón for Emilia Pérez), it felt like a very good time to revisit the film that arguably made it possible for all of the above: Tangerine. -PETER KNEGT

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