First-time Oscar nominee Sean Baker has made history with his haul at the 2025 Academy Awards.
The American director, 54, had never before been nominated for an Oscar prior to Sunday night’s (2 March) ceremony, hosted by Conan O’Brien.
Baker left the Los Angeles awards show, however, with a history-making four statuettes for his sex worker comedy-drama Anora.
The film was undeniably the big winner of the night, taking home prizes for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay – and Best Actress, the last of which was awarded to Mikey Madison.
Find the full list of Oscars winners, including Adrien Brody and Kieran Culkin, here.
In one of the major surprises of the evening, Anora’s 25-year-old star Madison triumphed over Demi Moore who had been the favourite to win in the Best Actress category for her role in Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance.
Baker is the first person ever to win four Oscars in one night for the same movie. It is an especially surprising feat given that Baker had never before been nominated for an Academy Award despite the critical acclaim surrounding his previous films including The Florida Project (2017) and Tangerine (2015).
Previously in 1954, as reported by The LA Times, Walt Disney won four awards in one night – but for four different films, including the documentary The Living Desert and three shorts.
Some eagle-eyed Oscars fans may point out that director Bong Joon Ho was photographed holding four statuettes at the 2020 Oscars for his thriller Parasite. Technically, however, only three of them were his.
Parasite won Best Picture, Best Director, Original Screenplay and International Feature. That last award, however, is awarded to the film’s country of origin – in this case South Korea – as opposed to the filmmaker themselves.
Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard had also been in contention for this historic accomplishment, given that he was also nominated for Directing, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song, and Best Picture.
The Spanish-language film had entered the Academy Awards with a record-breaking 13 nominations – three more than any previous foreign-language film.
It left with only two wins, including Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña and Best Original Song for “El Mal”, co-written by Clément Ducol, Camille, and Audiard.
Its Oscars campaign trail was likely impacted by the controversy surrounding its lead star Karla Sofía Gascón, who was in attendance after sitting out most of awards season due to her racist tweet controversy.
Taking to the stage for the third time to accept Best Director, Baker took the opportunity to voice his support for theatrical moviegoing.
“We are all here tonight because we love movies. Where did we fall in love with movies? At the movie theatre,” said Baker.
“In a time in which our world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever: It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home.”
Baker was presented his award by director and two-time Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino, another well-known advocate of cinema-going and the owner of two independent theatres in Los Angeles: the New Beverly and the Vista.
It was a deserved win for Sean Baker’s “sad and sexy glitter bomb of a film,” writes The Independent’s Annabel Nugent.
“At the centre of it all is Mikey Madison. After small but memorable parts as an acid-soaked Charles Manson acolyte in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and an unassuming Ghostface in the Scream franchise, Anora arrived at an opportune moment for the actor, a star-making role if ever there was one. And as the hard-talking, fast-speaking Ani, Madison goes for broke.”
