The director of the best picture winner, “Anora,” urged viewers to keep seeing films in theaters. Our critic hopes the industry listens, and that Baker keeps his independence.

With wins for best picture, directing, writing and editing on 'Anora,' Baker has set a new bar for Oscars success.

"Anora" director Sean Baker made history at the 2025 Oscars Sunday night. Baker broke the record for most competitive wins for the same film by a nominee in one show at the 97th Academy Awards, taking home four trophies.

New Jersey's Sean Baker made Oscar history for 'Anora' Sunday. Here's how the film cleaned up and more about Baker's film and Academy Awards history.

A true champion of independent cinema, Sean Baker's slice-of-life features explore underrepresented communities with authenticity and care.

Sean Baker won Academy Awards on Sunday night for writing, editing and directing his film Anora, a Cinderella story set in Brooklyn's Russian emigre communities of Brighton Beach and Coney Island. By the end of the night, the film's star Mikey Madison had collected a best lead actress award and Anora took home best picture.

"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

It snagged writer, director, producer, and editor Sean Baker the Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Picture, which made history for Baker. It is also worth noting that these are also Baker’s first nominations for director and writer.

The filmmaker went into the 2025 Oscars as a first-time nominee for Anora, and came away as the first person to win four statuettes for the same film. He personally won Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing,

While Anora claimed the top spot, winning the most awards at the 2025 Oscars, director Sean Baker took home four out of the five awards. Read on to learn more.

The 25-year-old star scooped the Best Actress award at the 2025 ceremony on Sunday night for her lead role as Anora 'Ani' Mikheeva in Sean Baker's Anora, which won a slew of other awards including Best Director and Best Picture.

Sean Baker has made Oscars history with "Anora" as the first person to win four Oscars in the same night for the same movie.