‘Anora’ wins best picture at the Oscars, a huge, record-setting victory for N.J.’s Sean Baker

An exhilarating Cinderella story that sees its heroine fall from a great height just reached the pinnacle of Hollywood recognition.

“Anora" has won the 2025 Oscar for best picture, one of five Academy Awards it took home Sunday.

New Jersey’s Sean Baker wrote, directed and produced the film, the most successful of his movies about sex workers.

The best picture win made Baker the first Academy Award winner to win four awards for the same film in a single Oscars ceremony.

“I wanna thank the Academy for recognizing a truly independent film,” Baker said, accepting the night’s top award. “This film was made on the blood, sweat and tears of incredible indie artists. Long live independent film.”

He took the stage not long after he won the Oscar for best director and gave a passionate speech about supporting movie theaters and the theatergoing experience.

“Anora,” which was nominated for six Oscars at the 97th Academy Awards, stars Mikey Madison as Anora “Ani” Mikeehva, a Brooklyn sex worker who meets Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov, the son of a Russian oligarch played by Russian actor Mark Eydelshteyn.

Baker won his first Oscar Sunday for best original screenplay for “Anora,” followed by best director and best editing. Not many directors edit their own movies.

Madison, 25, won her first Oscar for best actress, besting a pool of talent that included Demi Moore, Cynthia Erivo, Fernanda Torres and Karla Sofía Gascón.

Baker shares the best picture win with his fellow producers Samantha Quan — his wife — and Alex Coco.

“Hi, I don’t know how this can be real life,” Quan said in her speech. “This is really an incredible, impossible journey for the past 10 months.”

“We made this with very little money but all of our hearts,” she said. “To all the dreamers and the young filmmakers out there, tell the stories you wanna tell. Tell the stories that move you. I promise you, you will never regret it.”

Coco said they made “Anora” for $6 million with a crew of just 40 people.

“If you’re trying to make independent films, please keep doing it, we need more,” he said. “This is proof.”

READ MORE: Sean Baker wins Oscar for best director for ‘Anora.’ Indie film champion is from N.J.

Walt Disney also won four Oscars in a single ceremony in 1954, but unlike Baker, he didn’t win them for the same movie (they were all different films).

Baker, an indie auteur who launched his film career 25 years ago, has drawn the most attention by far for “Anora,” which received a huge push this awards season after its Palme d’Or win at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

In the movie, young Ani and Vanya have a funny and charming whirlwind romance. They toast to the good life in Las Vegas and take it so far that they decide to get hitched.

But Ani’s Cinderella story comes crashing down when Vanya’s parents learn of the marriage and her new husband flees their hired muscle.

Baker, who was born in Summit and grew up in Short Hills and Branchburg, wrote the movie for Madison after seeing her in “Scream” (2022) and Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019).

Baker spoke with NJ Advance Media about “Anora” in October, as the film started to expand in theaters and anticipation grew for Oscar nominations.

“I always thought ‘Oh, OK, so we won the Palme d’Or. I can now just sleep nicely at night,’” the director said with a laugh at the time.

READ MORE: With ‘Anora,’ Sean Baker’s moment has arrived. N.J. director on the movie eyeing Oscar gold (interview).

“I never really thought about this and I didn’t think forward to the release and the possible campaign,” said Baker, 54. “And so it’s nice that it’s playing out this way, and especially for my cast and crew. Mikey is getting a lot of attention and that’s really all I care about. I don’t care about my own stuff, quite honestly. I care about my cast and crew getting the recognition they deserve ... so if Mikey is on her way to possibly being recognized by the Academy, hey, that would be incredible, incredible.”

Baker started thinking about the seed of what would become “Anora” many years ago after conversations with his longtime friend Karren Karagulian, who has appeared in all of his films. He wanted to set a story in the Russian American community of Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach and Coney Island neighborhoods.

Most of Baker’s films, including “Tangerine” (2015), “Red Rocket” (2021), “The Florida Project” (2017) and “Starlet” (2012), follow sex workers in ways that do not malign, but center and humanize the characters.

While “The Florida Project” received an Oscar nomination for Willem Dafoe, this is the first time one of Baker’s films has been recognized so broadly at the Oscars.

Russian actor Yura Borisov, who plays hired muscle Igor, a character sent to confront Ani and Vanya, was also nominated for best supporting actor.

“Anora,” from the distributor Neon, wins best picture over “Conclave,” “The Brutalist,” “Dune Part 2,” “Nickel Boys,” “Wicked,” “I’m Still Here,” “Emilia Pérez,” “The Substance” and “A Complete Unknown.”

“Anora” previously won best feature at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, where the director, a self-described “indie film lifer,” delivered an impassioned speech calling for film studios and Hollywood to support indie filmmakers.

Baker won best director at the Independent Spirit Awards and Madison won best lead performance.

“Anora” also won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards.

Its awards season haul has included best actress for Madison and best casting for Baker and Quan at the BAFTAs; best feature film for Baker at the Directors Guild of America Awards; best original screenplay for Baker at the Writers Guild Awards; and outstanding producer of theatrical motion pictures for Baker, Quan and Coco at the Producers Guild of America Awards.

“Anora,” rated R, runs 2 hours and 18 minutes and is available to watch on demand.

Thank you for reading. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads.