How Sean Baker went from high school AV guy to Oscar-winning director

Sean Baker used leftover bits of film to shoot his debut feature, and tells aspiring filmmakers they will find a way if the creative will is there. (Supplied) Link copiedShareShare articleGrowing up in New Jersey before the internet and multiplexes branched into art-house films, Anora filmmaker Sean Baker got his first taste of cinema like any American kid living in the suburbs. "It was Spielberg and Lucas — mainstream Hollywood fair," Baker tells ABC Arts. Mainlining magazines like Premier, Famous Monsters and Fangoria in his bedroom, Baker regularly frequented his local comic book shop. Soon, he was cutting his teeth on his parents' Super 8 camera, then a VHS camcorder. "I had the real prestigious title of 'AV guy' at high school," he says, grinning. Baker, now 55, moved to Manhattan to study film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where his cinematic tastes quickly broadened. "I went to NYU thinking I was going to make the next Robocop or Die Hard but it was also that time I was discovering alternative indie cinema," he recalls. "Sundance was getting a little bit of a pop, and we were hearing about Spike Lee and Jim Jarmusch," Baker says. "Then it was the 90s, with Soderberg, Hal Hartley and Tarantino. I was in my freshman year, surrounded by repertory houses and art-house theatres, so my focus started to change, right there." Appearing at the Sydney Town Hall in conversation with Alexei Toliopoulos as a headliner of this year's Vivid festival, Baker is now a household name. He is the only* person to score four Oscars for one film in one night, for 2024's Mikey Madison-led, sex worker-positive rocky romance, Anora, scooping Best Picture (as producer, alongside his partner, Samatha Quan, and their regular collaborator, Alex Coco), Best Directing, Best Screenplay and Best Editing. Baker is also one of only four filmmakers to claim the top Academy Award after winning the Cannes Film Festival's prestigious Palme d'Or. Baker won four Oscars for Anora at the 2025 Academy Awards. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images) But his beginnings were a little more humble. Baker's debut feature, 2000's Four Letter Words — featuring a cameo from Anora star Karren Karagulian, who has appeared in almost all his films — was shot on 'short ends' of 35mm, the stuff left over from other movies. "Actors would be a quarter of the way through a scene before it would run out," Baker chuckles. While Baker is a fan of shooting on film, he's made movies any way possible. Inspired by the pared-back Dogme 95 movement, co-founded by Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, Baker shot 2004's immigrant tale, Take Out, co-written and directed by Shih-Ching Tsou, on a MiniDV. Tangerine, Baker's 2015 Christmas-set sex worker misadventure, was shot on a souped-up iPhone, as was his recent Penang-set short, Sandiwara, starring Michelle Yeoh. "It's a wonderful tool that can look really cool, so I'm not disrespecting that," Baker says. "I just love shooting on film." Whatever format emerging filmmakers choose, Baker says the key is to embrace the chaos. Mark Eidelstein and Mikey Madison in Sean Baker's Anora, which was made for around $US6.5 million but took in almost $US60m at the box office. (Supplied: IMDB) "Don't panic," he says. "Instead of running away from surprises, run towards them. Audiences can detect when there's something real there, an authentic moment." That ethos held true on Anora, which enjoyed a hefty-for-Baker $US6.5 million budget (still dinky compared to a Hollywood blockbuster). "I love happenstance and serendipity," he says. "It excites me. If it's all too legit, there's no fun." Baker's having a lot of fun, and it's working in his favour. His next film, Ti Amo!, has been acquired by Warner Bros' new alternative label, Clockwork, for a rumoured $US22 million. An enormous step change, it won't distract him from telling his very human stories. "I'm focused on what it's like to live in this capitalist society, often through marginalised communities struggling while pursuing the American dream, but not exactly taking the same route as others," he says. For every Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project, Baker loves discovering unknown actors, referencing Spike Lee introducing audiences to Halle Berry and Martin Lawrence. "I've been extremely lucky in my career, whether it's Prince Adu in Prince of Broadway, Maya Taylor and Katana Kiki Rodriguez in Tangerine, or Bria Vinaite from The Florida Project,' Baker says. Baker shot his 2015 film Tangerine entirely on a phone. (Supplied) "The common denominator is that they all had that enthusiasm. They're just as hungry as I am, and that's when someone's going to give it their all. So then it comes down to making them comfortable on set, and often it's my wife, Samantha, who's coaching them, getting them where they need to get so I can just show up." Baker's not ruling out working on a bigger scale in the future. "I want to be able to sleep at night and

How Sean Baker went from high school AV guy to Oscar-winning director

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