“It’s been a wild ride,” Sean Baker said with a grin. TheIn this case, “Anora”, Baker’s outrageous and influential drama about a sex worker in Brooklyn, Ani (Mikey Madison), who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn) marries Batting Russian and Armenian hand and her she spoiled man-child of a spouse.
The production of $ 6 million moved the Director of Gritty Indie films such as “Tangerine”, “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket” to another recognition level: He won Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and “Anora” got six Oscar -Nominations, including four that went to Baker: best picture, best director, best original script and best film editing.
The total tied record for most nominations that someone has received for a single movie, which Baker shares with “Emilia Pérez” director-writer-songwriter Jacques Audiard this year and with a small and August-group before that: Orson Welles for “Citizen Kane” (with its best picture nom officially goes to his company), Warren Beatty for “Heaven Can Wait” and “Reds”, the Coen brothers for “No Country for Old Men” (editing node under a pseudonym), Alfonsoo Cuarón for “Roma” and Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland.”
This interview was conducted before the most remarkable weekend by the Baker and “Anora” award, which found the film that won the best picture at Critics Choice Awards on Friday night, Baker won the Guild Award on Saturday night and the film won the producers Guild Award about an hour Later and two blocks away.
You have been nominated for Independent Spirit Awards and the Gotham Awards before, but does it feel different this time with four Oscar nominations?
It feels very different. Starts with Palme d’Or. When you are there it is like, oh, my God, we are in a completely different place. And also to hear from many wonderful filmmakers that I have grown up with and who have affected me. The fact that they have seen the movie means everything in the world. The fact that Mike Leigh likes the movie, the fact that Almodóvar likes the movie. I mean, Spike Lee called me the other day just to say congratulations. It is surreal, quite honestly.
“Anora” has definitive ties to the work you have done before, but it also feels different in some ways, with traces of the fantastic films Jonathan Demme did in the 80s in the way that escalates to madness. Did you look to explore new areas?
Well, not new areas. But I guess you can say that it is a further exploration of the things I have already done, with a slightly larger budget and more tools. All in all, I am to be able to do a little more of what I have always loved with every movie and explore topics that I have always been interested in exploring. I never want to say, “Oh, I want to make a Jonathan Demme movie, I want to do this, I want to do it.” I think the opposite of that: I want to be original.
What led you to this attitude, Brighton Beach in Brooklyn and this story?
It was actually a fashion film that I did during the post -production of “Red Rocket.” I took time off from editing and I was offered this little creative outlet by making a fashion film for Khaite, a small shop label in New York, for Fashion Week. It was my tribute to Walter Hill’s “The Warriors.” Alex Coco, who is one of the three “Anora” producers, produced it.
Alex and I stood on the boardwalk in the winter on Coney Island and looked around and said, “This is wonderful. Isn’t that cinematic? “It’s almost stuck in time. It feels and looks in the same way it did when Walter Hill shot there in 1978. I’m like, “I think we will make our next movie here. I have an idea of a Brighton Beach story on the rear burner. us pull it to the front burner and do it next. “Sometimes that’s what it takes, you know?
In the past, you have said that you do not create detailed back stories for your characters, as the films take place in the current time. But I can imagine that for a character that Ani, Mikey Madison probably wanted to know a lot.
Definitely. And in this case, we had to know a little more than usual. She is obviously Russian diaspora, but what does it mean? We started saying: ‘Ok, her grandmother probably came with her teenage mother around 1990, after the fall of the Soviet Union. How did they get by? “
Mikey wanted as much information as she could get, and she was incredible to absorb it. With these social-realistic films, as you said, they are in the present time. What is on the page is what you see in the theater – we do not hear story, backstory, et cetera. But the actors in my films appreciate all the information I can give them, and the more information we can create together, the better.
At Sundance this year we heard a lot about how hard times are for Independent film. As someone who has worked in this area for a couple Do you think independent movies are in a tough place?
It is. It has never been easier. With inflation and everything it costs more to make these little Indians. Now, if you go completely guerrilla, you can still make your movie for nothing. It is actually easier today because of the tools such as iPhone and the fact that you can edit at home. But then you can’t afford stars. It is very complicated, plus the streaming services have really changed things. There is much more content now and a lot of competition.
I feel for future filmmakers who have to deal with this new world. I feel I got my foot in the door just like it hit – just in time, do you know? And I have been able to continue to do so because I was established as a director who does not work with stars and whose subject may not be mainstream-friendly. But I can’t imagine having to break in and do what I’m doing now.
A version of this story first appeared in Down to the Wire Issue by Thewrap’s Awards Magazine. Read more from the question here.
