Sean Baker and Mikey Madison React to ‘Anora’ Oscars Sweep: ‘It Means We’re Doing Something Right’
Living up to its fairytale reputation, “Anora” has swept the 97th Academy Awards. On Oscars Sunday, Sean Baker’s Best Picture winner — starring Best Actress winner Mikey Madison as a stripper swept off her feet by the son of a Russian oligarch — took home five of its six nominations.
Just as he did in his four acceptance speeches of the evening, Baker thanked the Academy for celebrating indie film, saying that they’re always entering this process knowing they’ll be competing against movies that have budgets that are “literally almost 100 times” the cost of what they’re spending.
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“To get into the same room as a movie such as ‘Wicked,’ a wonderful movie, but a totally different film from ours, it means we’re doing something right,” Baker said backstage to press. “It’s been a great tradition over the last few years of films being recognized, and this is such a great batch of films this year … for us to be in that conversation this year with these other wonderful independents, it means everything.”
The historic landslide makes Baker the first director to ever win four Oscars on the same night for a single film. Walt Disney in 1954 previously won four times in one evening, but for four different films, and Bong Joon-Ho won three Oscars for “Parasite,” while the fourth Oscar he accepted for Best International Feature officially went to the submitting country of South Korea. Baker’s win completes a victory lap that began at Cannes when “Anora” won the Palme d’Or.
Though they were all wins for the same film, another journalist said he felt as though these four Oscars were also for “Tangerine,” “Red Rocket,” and “The Florida Project” and celebrated his entire career, many of which have touched on the theme of sex work.
“It does feel like a culmination in many ways,” Baker said. “I’ve been covering the topic of sex work in my last four films, and I think that, the research that I had done on those films, those films teaching me, eventually led to ‘Anora.’ It felt like ‘Anora’ is where I was going to.”
Madison as a breakout performer was asked what’s next for her now that she’s won an Oscar.
“I’ve been thinking about the future a lot and also the past. I’ve been really trying to remind myself to stay as present as possible in this,” she said backstage. “I really don’t know what will happen in the future. I just want to keep making movies and continue working with people who inspire me and tell stories that are compelling. I really don’t know what will happen. I’m just going to go home to my new puppies and clean up their mess and it’s going to bring me right down to Earth.”
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