‘Anora’s Sean Baker Thanks Sex Worker Community After Winning First Oscar For Best Screenplay
Anora has won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, with writer-director Sean Baker taking home the statuette. The win is Baker’s first at the Academy Awards, where he’s personally scored his first set of four nominations this year, from the film’s set of six.
In his acceptance speech, Baker said, “I want to thank the sex worker community. They have shared their stories. They have shared their life experience with me over the years. My deepest respect. Thank you — I share this with you.”
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Baker also thanked Neon, FilmNation, Focus Features/Universal Pictures, Le Pacte, his “incredible cast,” who “elevated everything I wrote and made me look very good,” and finally, his fellow producers on the project, Samantha Quan and Alex Coco.
For Baker, Anora is just the latest film to spotlight the sex worker community. An interest in authentically examining the lives of underrepresented individuals has been at the core of his filmmography, from his 2012 breakthrough feature, Starlet, to the iPhone-lensed Tangerine, through to more recent works like Red Rocket.
Anora has been a critical favorite over the course of the whole season, winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes before going on to claim a BAFTA, a Critics’ Choice Award, three Independent Spirit Awards and other accolades. Baker won out over a strong field of writer nominees, including Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold for The Brutalist, Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain, Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, and Alex David for September 5, and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance.
Up for a total of six Oscars tonight, including Best Picture, Anora tells the story of a Brooklyn stripper (Mikey Madison) who impulsively marries the son (Mark Eydelshteyn) of a Russian oligarch, being swept into a world of unimaginable wealth, only to later have to contend with a family determined to break the the couple apart. Neon released the film in theaters in October.
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