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Home Academy Awards

Oscars 2025: Sean Baker’s 30-Year Journey To ‘Anora’

Clarence Moye by Clarence Moye
February 7, 2025
in Academy Awards, Best Director, Film
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Sean Baker

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Check out this new featurette detailing Anora writer-director Sean Baker’s 30-year journey in making the Oscar-nominated film.

From the release:

SEAN BAKER’S 30-YEAR CAREER IS A TESTAMENT TO HIS COMMITMENT TO INDEPENDENT CINEMA AND HIS ABILITY TO HUMANIZE THE OVERLOOKED CORNERS OF AMERICAN LIFE. HE BEGAN HIS FEATURE FILM CAREER WITH TAKE OUT (2004), A RAW, VÉRITÉ-STYLE DRAMA ABOUT AN UNDOCUMENTED CHINESE IMMIGRANT NAVIGATING A GRUELING DAY AS A DELIVERY WORKER.

THE FILM SET THE TONE FOR BAKER’S FUTURE WORK-INTIMATE, CHARACTER-DRIVEN STORIES. WITH PRINCE OF BROADWAY (2008) AND STARLET (2012), BAKER CONTINUED TO HONE HIS NATURALISTIC STYLE, OFTEN WORKING WITH NON-PROFESSIONAL ACTORS TO BRING AUTHENTICITY TO HIS STORIES. HE FOLLOWED WITH TANGERINE (2015), A GROUNDBREAKING FILM SHOT ENTIRELY ON AN IPHONE THAT PUT BAKER ON THE MAP. THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017) EARNED HIM WIDESPREAD CRITICAL ACCLAIM. THROUGH THE LENS OF A SIX-YEAR-OLD GIRL LIVING IN A MOTEL NEAR DISNEY WORLD, BAKER CAPTURED THE JOY AND STRUGGLE OF AMERICA’S HIDDEN HOMELESS.

RED ROCKET (2021) CONTINUED HIS EXPLORATION OF AMERICAN SUBCULTURES, THIS TIME FOLLOWING A WASHED-UP ADULT FILM STAR RETURNING TO HIS TEXAS HOMETOWN. ALL OF THIS LED TO ANORA (2024), BAKER’S MOST AMBITIOUS WORK YET. CHRONICLING THE WHIRLWIND ROMANCE BETWEEN A BROOKLYN SEX WORKER AND THE SON OF A RUSSIAN OLIGARCH, THE FILM EARNED BAKER THE PALME D’OR-SOLIDIFYING HIS PLACE AS ONE OF THE MOST VITAL FILMMAKERS OF HIS GENERATION. HIS JOURNEY FROM MICRO-BUDGET GUERRILLA FILMMAKING TO THE TOP OF THE CINEMATIC WORLD IS A TRIUMPH OF VISION, PERSISTENCE, AND AN UNWAVERING DEDICATION TO TELLING THE STORIES OF THOSE OFTEN LEFT IN THE MARGINS.

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Tags: 2025 OscarsAnoraSean Baker
Clarence Moye

Clarence Moye

Clarence Moye is a proud co-founder of The Contending where he writes about film, television, and occasionally Taylor Swift. Yes, you're allowed to make fun of him for that. He does not care. Under his 10-year run at Awards Daily, Clarence covered the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Telluride Film Festival, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, the Middleburg Film Festival, and much more. Clarence is a member of the Critics Choice Association.

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