UPDATED with PGA win: Sean Baker received each the PGA Awards‘ and DGA Awards‘ high prizes for Neon’s Anora — on the identical night time. And if previous statistics are a signifier of what’s to return, it’s a main indicator for each the Oscars’ Finest Director class in addition to Finest Image.
Baker’s wild night time began on the Beverly Hilton, the place he received the Administrators Guild’s high prize, the Excellent Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Function Movie. He then raced to the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century Metropolis, the place he picked up the PGA’s high trophy, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Excellent Producer of Theatrical Movement Footage, alongside his fellow producers Alex Coco and Samantha Quan.
Deadline confirmed that the PGA ceremony delayed its begin to accommodate the Anora staff, which was coming off taking the Finest Image prize Friday night on the Critics Selection Awards.
So what does this imply for Baker and Anora‘s probabilities on the Oscars, the place the movie has six nominations?
The wins tonight are notable not simply because they occurred shut collectively: 25 of the previous 34 PGA Theatrical Movement Image winners went on to win Finest Image on the Oscars, together with final 12 months’s Oppenheimer, whereas 19 of the DGA’s previous 22 Theatrical Function winners have gone on to win Oscar Finest Director.
And within the historical past of the Academy Awards, there are solely six situations when a Finest Image winner didn’t have a Finest Director Nomination: Wings (1927/28), Grand Resort (1931/32), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Argo (2012), Inexperienced E-book (2018) and CODA (2021).
“My imposter syndrome is skyrocketing proper now, in addition to my cortisol ranges,” Baker stated onstage on the DGA Awards after his win there tonight. “It’s such an honor to be acknowledged by my friends.”
He thanked his directorial staff, solid and crew, Neon, the DGA, after which turned to Quan and Coco. “Clearly I’ve tortured you and I’m so sorry,” he stated. “They have been capable of pull off a $6 million movie shot on movie in New York Metropolis in 2023 — nearly an impossibility.”
Baker gave props to his solid “that put every thing into it,” particularly Mikey Madison, who performs the lead function of Ani (Anora), alongside Yura Borisov, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan, within the movie a few younger lady working in a New York strip membership who impulsively marries a youthful, wealthy consumer, solely to search out out he’s the son of a Russian oligarch, and his household are lower than happy by the union.
“Working with [Madison] has modified the way in which I will likely be directing actors sooner or later, due to what she gave,” Baker stated. “Listening to her unimaginable concepts … a 12 months earlier than manufacturing, what she wished to convey to the manufacturing and what she did convey to it. [She has] an unimaginable profession forward.”
Baker recalled understanding he wished to be a director when he noticed the burning window sequence from 1931’s Frankenstein. “The following morning I instructed my mom I wished to be a director,” he stated. “My mom supported me the entire method. Sadly, I don’t suppose I’m making the flicks she wished me to make. I don’t suppose she’s seen Anora, I don’t need her to see Anora.”
Simply down the highway on the PGA Awards, Baker continued to rally Coco and Quan as facilitators of his imaginative and prescient.
“I noticed them shine as producers,” Baker stated in his onstage remarks with the duo at his aspect. “I noticed them make miracles day-to-day. They by no means stated no to me. They labored it out.”
The Oscars will likely be held on the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on March 2nd.
Anthony D’Alessandro and Fred Topel contributed to this report.