Sean Baker Wishes His Mom a Happy Birthday as He Wins Best Director for “Anora” at Oscars 2025: 'This Is for You!'

Anora filmmaker Sean Baker is this year’s directing champion at the Oscars.

At the 97th annual Academy Awards on March 2, the director hit the stage at the Dolby Theatre to accept one of the final awards of the night from presenter Quentin Tarantino.

Baker, who already earned wins for Best Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay for Anora, quickly thanked Tarantino for casting Mikey Madison in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

"If you didn't cast Mikey in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, there would be no Anora," Baker noted.

The director continued his speech by emphasizing the importance of the movie-going experience for audiences, filmmakers and distributors.

"We're all here tonight and watching this broadcast because we love movies. Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater," Baker continued in his speech. "Watching a film in the theater with an audience is an experience. We can laugh together, cry together, scream and fight together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together. And in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more than important ever. It's a communal experience you simply don't get at home."

"Right now, the theater-going experience is under threat. Movie theaters, especially independently-owned movie theaters, are struggling. It’s up to us to support them. During the pandemic, we lost nearly 1000 screens in the U.S. We continue to lose them regularly. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of culture," Baker said, receiving applause from the audience.

"This is my battle cry. Filmmakers, keep making movies for the big screen. I know I will. Distributors, please focus first and foremost on the theatrical releases of your film. Neon did that for me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Baker said, adding "Parents, introduce your children to feature films in movie theaters and you’ll be molding the next generation of movie lovers and movie makers."

"And for all of us, when we can, please watch movies in the theater and let’s keep the great tradition of the movie theater alive and well," Baker said, before giving a sweet birthday shoutout to his mother, who he credits with making him a lover of movies.

"My mother introduced me to cinema at five years old. Tday is also her birthday. Happy birthday mom. I love you. Thank you for everything," Baker said.

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Also in the running for the best director prize were Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, Coralie Fargeat for The Substance and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown.

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Although he’s risen through the Hollywood ranks as a groundbreaking indie director, Baker, 54, made his nominee debut at the 2025 Oscars. As the writer, director, producer and editor of Anora, he joined an elite list of filmmakers who earned four nods for one film. The Best Picture contender stars Mikey Madison, also a first-time nominee, as the titular sex worker experiencing a whirlwind Cinderella story.

Related: Mikey Madison Jokes Her Brother 'Bet a Lot of Money' on Her Anora Oscar Nomination (Exclusive)

Corbet, 36, is a former actor whose behind-the-camera transition has brought about three acclaimed features: 2015's The Childhood of a Leader, 2018's Vox Lux and now The Brutalist, which stars Adrien Brody as a Hungarian-born Jewish architect emigrating to the U.S. following the Holocaust. The historical epic, costarring Brody’s fellow Oscar nominees Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce, earned Corbet his first three nominations, including for Best Picture and the original screenplay he co-wrote with wife Mona Fastvold.

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Audiard, 72, is a legendary French director known stateside for 2018’s The Sisters Brothers and 2013’s Rust and Bone. His Mexico-set musical-thriller Emilia Pérez, about a drug cartel leader who secretly undergoes transitioning into a woman, stars Zoe Saldaña and, in the titular role, Karla Sofía Gascón, the Oscars’ first openly transgender performer nominee. Earlier this season when her controversial social media posts resurfaced, Gascón deactivated her X account, gave several statements and interviews and eventually apologized after Audiard condemned the Spanish actress’ words.

Related: Zoe Saldaña Says She's 'Really Sad' Over Emilia Pérez Costar Karla Sofía Gascón’s Tweets: 'I Don't Support It'

French writer-director Fargeat, 48, followed up her 2017 feature Revenge with the wholly original horror-satire The Substance. Starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley as different versions of the same character taking a body-altering substance, the hit film earned Fargeat her first three Oscar nods including for Best Picture. In the Best Director category, she became the Academy’s ninth ever female nominee.

After a screenplay nod for 2017's Logan and Best Picture nod for 2019's Ford v Ferrari, Mangold, 61, extended his Oscar recognition tally to five as the director and co-writer (with Jay Cocks) of Best Picture contender A Complete Unknown. The hit biopic, about the 1960s folk movement, stars Oscar nominees Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez.

Related: Why Timothée Chalamet Says He Didn't Use a Cell Phone for 3 Months While Filming Bob Dylan Biopic A Complete Unknown

See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 97th annual Academy Awards, airing on ABC. 

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