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 โ four of them for him โ is his latest neorealistic portrayal of societyโs underbelly, in which a stripper thinks she has struck it rich with a Russian oligarchโs son.
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 Hollywoodโs 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.