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Sean Baker has won the DGA top prize – Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film – for Anora. And if past statistics are a signifier of what’s to come, this is a major indicator for the Oscars Best Director category.
“My imposter syndrome is skyrocketing right now, as well as my cortisol levels,” Baker said, as he accepted the award. “It’s such an honor to be recognized by my peers.”
He thanked his directorial team, cast and crew, NEON, the DGA and his producers Samantha Quan and Alex Coco. “Obviously I’ve tortured you and I’m so sorry,” he said. “They were able to pull off a $6 million film shot on film in New York City in 2023—almost an impossibilty.”
Baker gave props to his my cast “that put everything into it,” especially Mikey Madison, who plays the lead role of Ani (Anora), alongside Yura Borisov, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan, in the film about a young woman working in a New York strip club who impulsively marries a younger, rich client, only to find out he is the son of a Russian oligarch, and his family are less than pleased by the union.
“Working with [Madison] has changed the way I will be directing actors in the future, because of what she gave,” Baker said. “Hearing her incredible ideas… a year before production, what she wanted to bring to the production and what she did bring to it. [She has] an incredible career ahead.”
Baker recalled knowing he wanted to be a director when he saw the burning window sequence from 1931’s Frankenstein. “The next morning I told my mother I wanted to be a director,” he said. “My mother supported me the whole way. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m making the movies she wanted me to make. I don’t think she’s seen Anora, I don’t want her to see Anora.”
So what does this mean for Baker and Anora‘s Oscar chances? The film has six nominations there.
19 of the last 22 DGA Theatrical Feature winners have gone on to win Best Director at Oscar. To put it another way, since the DGA Awards’ began awarding this category in 1948, only eight DGA winners in this category did not go on to win Best Director at Oscar.
So closely correlated are these two that their annual five nominees often match. This year, four of the five DGA nominees are the same as the Academy’s picks for Best Director: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, Sean Baker for Anora, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown. The exception being DGA-nominee Edward Berger for Conclave — he was not included in the Best Director nominations at Oscar (Coralie Fargeat is in the fifth spot for The Substance).
Four out of the five DGA picks also matched Oscar Best Director nominees in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. And in the history of the Academy Awards, there are only six instances when a Best Picture winner did not have a Best Director Nomination: Wings (1927/28), Grand Hotel (1931/32), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Argo (2012), Green Book (2018), and CODA (2021).
Anora also took home the top prize of Best Picture at the Critics Choice Awards Friday night, which only serves to increase its Oscar chances.
The Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on March 2nd.
