Sean Baker is the toast of Hollywood after his movie “Anora” won five Oscars Sunday, including best picture.
Baker even set a new record, winning four of those Oscars himself — the most any person has received for the same movie at one Academy Awards ceremony.
While the director, who hails from New Jersey, has been making independent movies for 25 years, the road to Oscars glory wasn’t assured.
“Anora” is the first movie that landed him any nominations.
And while the film was a sparkling victory for Baker on multiple fronts, the accomplished filmmaker had his struggles during the making of the movie.
With Baker’s permission, Lawrence Sher, a fellow Oscar-nominated Jersey filmmaker — Sher grew up in Teaneck and Baker grew up in Short Hills and Branchburg — just shared a revealing voicemail message from the “Anora” director.
The message reflects the reality of filmmaking — bringing a movie to life is often a long slog.
READ MORE: ‘Anora’ wins best picture at the Oscars, a huge, record-setting victory for N.J.’s Sean Baker
Sher was in communication with Baker during the making of their two films — Sher was the cinematographer on “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
Baker gave Sher an update on his progress through the multi-stage process of putting “Anora” together.
“The editing isn’t going well,” Baker says with a laugh in the voicemail (listen below).
Oscar winner Mikey Madison in "Anora."Neon
Sher posted the recording to the Instagram account for ShotDeck, his online database of movie images.
“Well, you know, I always ... I can’t edit right away, so I take a long time before even starting,” Baker continued in the message. “So I’m literally just starting right now. And I think we wrapped at the same time. Probably you guys have a cut of ‘Joker’ and I haven’t even begun my editing.
“So actually I’m really behind,” he said. “I’m in a bad, semi-bad place in terms of, like, I have two films to edit. Like, (producer Alex) Coco and everybody, they’re all wringing their hands because of how far behind I am.”
READ MORE: With ‘Anora,’ Sean Baker’s moment has arrived (interview)
Baker, 54, has said that he likes to take a six-month break after filming a movie before diving into editing.
A year after his message to Sher, “Anora” won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, putting the film on a path to awards season.
Baker ended up winning an Oscar for best editing, along with the Academy Awards for best picture and best director.
His first win of the night for “Anora,” which was also the first Oscar of his career, was the award for best original screenplay.
Mikey Madison, who stars in the title role, won her first Oscar for best actress at just 25 years old for playing Brooklyn sex worker Anora “Ani” Mikheeva.
Baker shared the best picture win with fellow producers Samantha Quan, his wife, and Alex Coco.
READ MORE: N.J. ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ cinematographer Lawrence Sher on Joaquin, Gaga and Jersey’s Arkham
The writer, director and producer dedicated his best director speech to calling for people to support local movie theaters — especially independent theaters — and for film distributors to prioritize theatrical releases.
Baker worked as a movie theater manager and projectionist when he was a teen living in Jersey.
“Parents, introduce your children to feature films in movie theaters and you’ll be molding the next generation of movie lovers and filmmakers,” Baker said in the speech. “And for all of us, when we can, please watch movies in the theater and let’s keep the great tradition of the moviegoing experience alive and well.”
Stories by Amy Kuperinsky
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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.