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Sean Baker Says Movie Theaters Are ‘Under Threat’ While Accepting Oscar for Best Director: ‘Keep Making Films for the Big Screen. I Know I Will’


Sean Baker made a 'battle cry' for endangered movie theaters at the Academy Awards, accepting the Oscar for best director for 'Anora.'

In the best director category, Baker emerged triumphant over a field of fellow best picture nominee helmers, including Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”), Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”), Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”) and James Mangold (“A Complete Unknown”). In moving from romantic comedy to crime thriller and other wild tonal territories, the low-budget indie follows Ani (Madison), a New York stripper who elopes with the son of an uber rich Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn) and enters a world of trouble. Produced for around $6 million, “Anora” marks Baker’s eighth feature film and only his second breakthrough with Oscar voters, previously steering Willem Dafoe to a supporting actor nomination for “The Florida Project.”

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