Anora director Sean Baker sets Oscar record with four wins for same movie

Indie filmmaker Sean Baker has become only the second person in Academy Awards history to win four Oscars on the same night after Walt Disney managed the same feat in 1956. His sex worker drama Anora won five Oscars in total — best picture, film editing, original screenplay and best director for the 54-year-old — alongside a Best Actress Oscar for Mikey Madison.

Baker is also the first person to win four Oscars for the same movie ever, with Disney's record-setting night coming with prizes for four different films. It was also the first time Baker had ever been nominated at the Oscars.

Winning Best Director, Baker used his speech to make a plea for the return of theatregoers to cinemas following the pandemic, saying when "the world is so divided" that people need this "communal experience".

He also said "happy birthday mum" to his mother, who he explained introduced him to cinema.

Winning the Oscar for original screenplay Sean Baker thanked his cast, American actress Mikey Madison and Russian star Yuriy Borisov, and the "sex worker community".

"They (sex workers) have shared their stories, they have shared their experience with me over the years, they have my deepest respect, thank you," Baker added.

Baker's wins for Anora follows a Palme D'Or win at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and a Bafta for Best Casting with wife Samantha Quan. He has been making indie movies on shoestring budgets since his feature debut Four Letter Words in 2000, and his other films include The Florida Project, Red Rocket, and Tangerine.

At the 26th Academy Awards in 1954, Walt Disney won the Academy Award in all four categories in which he was nominated: Best Short Subject (Cartoon) for Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, Best Short Subject (Two-reel) for Bear Country, Best Documentary (Feature) for The Living Desert, and Best Documentary (Short Subject) for The Alaskan Eskimo.