Sean Baker Urges Filmmakers To “Keep Making Movies For The Big Screen” With Theaters Under Threat In Accepting Directing Oscar

An exhuberant Sean Baker urged filmmakers to keep movie theaters alive and “Keep making movies for the big screen,” in his acceptance speech after winning the Oscar tonight for best directing for Anora. This was Baker’s fourth nomination and second win tonight.

“Where did we fall in love with movies, at the movie theater, watching a film in the theaters with an audience is an experience we can laugh together, cry together, scream and fight together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together, and in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever. It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home and right now, the theater going experience is under threat.” He added, “Movie theaters, especially independently owned theaters are struggling, and it’s up to us to support them. During the pandemic we lost nearly 1,000 screens in the U.S. and we continue to lose them regularly. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of our culture.”

Anora stars Mikey Madison as a young sex worker from Brooklyn who gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Anora was nominated for six Oscars tonight, winning five, including best picture, best actress for Mikey Madison, director and original screenplay for Baker, and film editing.

Baker bested fellow nominees Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain, Moritz Binder for September 5 and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance.