Sean Baker’s 2024-2025 success rivals the 2000-2002 Lakers NBA run. Not only was he the first American to win the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or in ten years, but last night, Sunday, March 2, he just made Oscars history by winning four Academy Awards for the same film, Anora. Best picture, director, writer, and editor (the film would also win an award for its lead actress, Mikey Madison).
A few weeks ago, after winning an Independent Spirit Award, Sean Baker spoke about being an ‘indie film lifer’, meaning that he has dedicated his life to the craft of ‘indie’ filmmaking, i.e., low budget, independent films that receive little to no financial/marketing support from the big studios, and relies on self funding and word-of-mouth marketing. From the success of his 2015 film, Tangerine, which was shot entirely on an iPhone, one of which he was forced to sell to pay rent (this is a man in his mid 40s who had to sell an iPhone to pay rent – wrap your head around that), to Anora nine years later, which had a modest budget of $6 million (AED 22 million), and earned $ 40 million worldwide (AED 146 million).
He has spoken vehemently about the bad pay given from the director’s guild of America, should you be under contract with them. And despite finally achieving success in his mid 50s, Baker has acknowledged that most directors find themselves struggling to get work, nevertheless pay rent, their entire careers. But last night he proved that low budget voices are as loud as ever.
The reason this is so exciting isn’t because an indie filmmaker won several awards, but rather the proof that you don’t need a titanic budget in order to tell a good story; should studios have a little faith in the story itself rather than the potential success based on what colour cape the lead actor is wearing, good things are possible.
Sean Baker’s entire filmography is terrific, and for anyone who’s been paying attention for the last decade, his win last night is anything but a surprise, and rather a long time coming. His continued dedication to telling stories about characters enslaved to a life lived in the background – outcasts, rejects, weirdos, urchins – has put the human condition under a magnifying glass, and Anora feels more like an amalgamation of all his films’ characters smushed into one, with dazzling results.
American novelist Richard Price once wrote, “You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying in the road.” While everyone else has been writing about the explosions, Sean Baker has always written about the socks in the road, and thankfully, now he finally got some credit for it.
