Oscars 2025: Sean Baker wins Best Director at the 97th Academy Awards

LOS ANGELES -- Sean Baker has won the award for Best Director at the 97th Academy Awards.

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This was Baker's first Oscar nomination. "Anora" received six nominations for the 2025 Oscars.

Baker solely edited "Anora" aside from directing, producing and writing the film.

In the film, Anora, a young woman from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled. The screenplay was inspired by a story from Baker's friend about a newlywed Russian-American couple that was kidnapped for collateral.

"Anora" also won several awards leading up to Hollywood's biggest night, including the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Best Picture at the Critics' Choice Awards, and Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Baker beat out Brady Corbet for "The Brutalist"; James Mangold for "A Complete Unknown"; Jacques Audiard for "Emilia Pérez"; and Coralie Fargeat for "The Substance."