Sean Baker, winner of 4 Oscars for Anora, took the long road to Hollywood’s grandest stage

The winner of best picture and best director for Anora in the 2025 Oscars, Sean Baker has spent his career chronicling marginalised communities. It has made him a leading light of the indie movie scene in the United States.

His film, won five awards – four of them for him – is his latest neorealistic portrayal of society’s underbelly, in which a stripper thinks she has struck it rich with a Russian oligarch’s son.

In winning best director, the first time the 54-year-old has been nominated, Baker fended off competition from Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, James Mangold for A Complete Unknown, Jacques Audiard for Emilia Perez and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance.

Anora also won best actress, and Baker himself collected additional gold statuettes for best original screenplay and best editing.

It has been a long road to Hollywood’s grandest stage for Baker, a slight and unfailingly affable character with an encyclopedic knowledge of film, who is known for casting non-actors and real sex workers in his movies.