Sean Baker is having himself a day.
“I’m actually really still processing it. Crazy. For this to happen to a small indie like this really is mind-blowing,” the Anora mastermind tells Gold Derby about the film’s six Oscar nominations on Thursday, four of which he received personally. “I’m so happy for Mikey [Madison] and Yura [Borisov], incredibly and really surprised about all of it.”
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The film is up for Best Picture (where Baker is nominated as a producer alongside Alex Coco and Samantha Quan). Madison contends for Best Actress. Borisov is in the running for Best Supporting Actor. And Baker has three additional individual nominations: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing. See the complete list of nominees.
Anora is an unconventional Oscar contender, a comedy about a Brooklyn sex worker who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. So Baker didn’t anticipate the widespread recognition the film received. “In all truthfulness, we thought Cannes [where the film won the coveted Palme d’Or] was the end of the line. Well, at least I did,” he admits. “I know everybody around me said, ‘No, we’re on our way.’ But because of the subject matter, I always saw this, even when I was writing it, as a divisive film that would be 50-50 and so not even be able to get in the conversation.”
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Now, he’s in the conversation — and then some. So which of his bids means the most? “I really am happy about the directing [nomination], because obviously I always saw myself first as a director,” he says. But Best Editing is particularly special, despite the category getting less fanfare. “Editing for me is literally just as important,” he explains. “It’s one-third of the whole process. It’s just as important as writing and directing, and it rarely gets as much recognition. And I poured my heart into that, that freaking edit. I lost my mind during the edit, so for that to happen, I guess it was all worth it. Well, maybe it wasn’t. You have to talk to my wife [Quan] because I tortured her.”
While Baker is still trying to wrap his head around the nominations, he says he’s in good company. “I know Brady [Corbet, director of The Brutalist], I know Coralie [Fargeat, director of The Substance], I’m so happy for both of them. I can’t wait to see them, congratulate them and, I don’t know, whoever’s going to be there. … Everybody. I look forward to seeing everybody.”
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