How ‘Anora’ Filmmaker Sean Baker Pulled Off an Oscar Feat That’s Happened Only a Few Times in History

Warren Beatty. Alan Menken. Chloe Zhao. Alfonso Cuarón.

The list of the people who’ve received four nominations for the same film is extremely short, those names and maybe one or two more.  

On Thursday, however, Anora filmmaker Sean Baker pulled off the rare hat trick-plus-one (the hyphenate hat trick?) — he landed noms for director, picture, original screenplay and editing.

“It’s surreal, a lot of those are my heroes,” Baker said when The Hollywood Reporter caught up with him Thursday about the rare feat. “Especially since I thought I was making a movie whose subject matter was out of fashion,” he said, laughing about his stripper-themed action dramedy.

In a separate interview, star Mikey Madison called Baker “one of a kind.” Oscar-wise, that statement is not exactly true. But it’s not far off.

Walt Disney would regularly land a handful of Oscar nominations in a given year, but for a mix of different films (often shorts). And Francis Ford Coppola drew five noms in 1975 — but spread across two movies (The Conversation and The Godfather Part II). Bong Joon-ho went to the Oscar podium four times to accept awards for Parasite in 2020…but the fourth was for the international prize, which goes to the country.

And even among some who’ve done the nomination four-step, like Beatty — who pulled it off with both Heaven Can Wait in 1979 and Reds in 1982 — they achieved it with the help of acting.

Baker doesn’t act, though, so couldn’t get there that way. Like Zhao with Nomadland in 2021, he scored the diamond, ace, jack and heart with a boost from editing.

That job is one that few modern directors do. But Baker has long felt differently: He has edited all eight of his features.

“I consider editing to be just as important as writing and directing — it’s literally a third of the process,” he said. He paused and laughed. “I hope it doesn’t come across as me being a control freak. It’s just my process.”

The achievement indicates not just Baker’s talent but a changed climate. Coming twice in five years, the nominations feat reflects the Academy’s willingness to honor independent-minded auteurs, who tend to wear more hats on their movies than those working on bigger pictures. (No modern filmmaker is known to have landed five nominations for the same movie; let’s not get crazy.)

Among the fourpeaters, Zhao and Cuarón (Roma) would each go on to win two Oscars their years. Baker has a chance to surpass their mark when March 2 rolls around.