Speech-to-Speech: How to Win Four Oscars Without Making People Hate You

An ode to Sean Baker's preparedness and other Oscar reflections

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The odds of Sean Baker winning four Oscars for his work on Anora were pretty solid: his win at the Directors Guild Awards made him the clear frontrunner for Best Director, and if his film’s win the same night at the Producers Guild Awards indicated a strong chance at winning Best Picture, that would make wins in Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing feasible as well. Accordingly, I am choosing to believe that he had least thought to himself what he would do if he ended up giving four acceptance speeches.

Even so, though, I think it’s remarkable how well he managed the task in front of him when he did in fact tie Walt Disney’s record for the most individual wins in a single Oscar ceremony, and the first to win four for a single film. By the time he stepped to the microphone a fourth time, viewers should have been sick of him, but he managed his time—even when going over time—so effectively that I’d imagine even those who haven’t seen Anora and how no opinion of its wins would probably have been pretty happy about it. Let’s go through them one by one.

Speech 1 - Best Original Screenplay

This is just a straightforward Oscar speech, thanking everyone he needs to thank: his distributors, his cast, his fellow producers, and then a specific thank you to the sex worker community. It’s efficient, clear, and if this was the only time he appeared onstage he would have made the impression he hoped for.

Speech 2 - Best Editing

In his shortest speech, Baker starts with a small acknowledgment that he’s up there again, a fun editing-specific joke acknowledging his multi-hyphenate status, a reiteration of his previous thank yous, and then ends on a mention of his dog Bunsen. You’re not mad he’s winning multiple Oscars after a quick, charming, and dog-related speech like this. And in case you’re wondering, here’s Bunsen:

Would it have been better if Bunsen had been there in person? Yes. But this worked too.

Speech 3 - Best Director

At this point, Sean Baker has said all of his “Thank Yous” and he smartly chooses to avoid repeating any of them. Instead, he does some requisite acknowledgment of the Academy and his fellow nominees before putting down the Oscar to deliver his “battle cry” for the value of the theatrical experience. It’s his most prepared speech, but it’s passionate and well-articulated, and smartly makes this less about him as a filmmaker and more about filmgoing as a cultural institution. He speaks to filmmakers and distributors, but he also speaks to parents about bringing their children to cinemas, and ties it to his own mother in a tribute on her birthday. It’s a speech that stands alone, but it also works as a progression of his dialogue with the room.

It’s also the only speech I’d quibble with slightly, since giving presenter Quentin Tarantino credit for discovering Mikey Madison is some serious Better Things erasure. But as I’d imagine Baker was more likely to be watching Once Upon a Time In Hollywood than an FX dramedy, it’s probably not a factually wrong claim the way he worded it, so I’ll let it slide.

Speech 4 - Best Picture

At this point in the night, there’s no real question about who’s winning Best Picture: A Complete Unknown had been shut out, Conclave had just won screenplay, and nothing suggested The Brutalist had a real shot despite wins in Score, Cinematography, and Actor. That said, I was still on the edge of my seat wondering how Baker would conclude his historic night on stage, but I shouldn’t have been shocked when he wasn’t the one to step to the mic. In what was no doubt a planned order, his fellow nominated producers Alex Coco and Samantha Quan each speak first, getting a chance to offer their own reflections on what their $6 million film winning best picture means.

This works narratively because we’ve heard about both Coco and Quan in Baker’s earlier speeches, and having Baker there behind them reinforces the spirit of the film that we also saw reflective in the cast and crew’s reaction to Mikey Madison’s win preceding it.

This image of everyone crowded around the surprise Best Actress winner was my favorite of the night, such a clear indication of the community created when making a smaller independent film like this. And when Baker does rush to the mic to bring the speech to a close, risking a fourth speech in a single evening, it’s simply to speak to the power of this community, taking ten seconds to reflect on the indie artists who made it possible. “Long live independent film” is a thesis statement to the film’s wins as a whole, and gives him a deserved grace note to a record-setting accomplishment.

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As noted, I can’t say for sure how much Baker engineered his intentions if he were to win all four awards, but given how badly Brady Corbet bombed with a rant about final cut in his second speech at this year’s Golden Globes, I’d suggest whatever thinking he did was well worth it and helped turn a “rout” into a personal, reflective tribute to both his film and filmmaking as a whole.

Episodic Oscar Observations

• For those who watched on broadcast, you likely still heard about what a mess Hulu’s livestream was—I was at my boyfriend’s, and so I was trying to access Hulu, but none of the TV apps would log-in, and my phone app kept telling me the live event wasn’t available in my location. The phone eventually worked, and I managed to Airplay it to my Apple TV, but then when the broadcast reached its scheduled “end” at 10:30 the app ended the broadcast right before Best Actress. I managed to get it to restart—I still don’t know how—and see the rest of the show, but a real dark mark for streaming and a great pitch for CinemaStreams.

• I don’t know that Conan O’Brien’s material was particularly excellent, but he is so distinctly good at cutting through the self-seriousness of the affair. It’s silly, but he’s aware how silly it is, like the joke about how they had to use the sandworm puppet twice because it cost too much. There’s just such an ease to the whole affair, especially in his switches between sincerity and inanity, and it makes such a positive impact on the vibes of the evening. My one note? The whole song-and-dance about not wasting time wasn’t good or funny enough for the joke to land, and the transition into it seemed awkward. Felt like it needed another pass.

• As I said on Bluesky, there’s no truth that will ever emerge in the postmortem to an upset like we saw in Best Actress. Demi Moore was the frontrunner throughout award season, and won the SAG Award, and so clearly something changed when things came to the Academy voters. You could read this as the voters asserting the “popcorn actress” narrative Moore herself brought up at the Globes, but there’s never going to be evidence to support this, and it might just be a sign of how much the Academy’s membership were invested in Anora and its win for Best Picture. There’s also the body horror of it all. There’s just never going to be a clear answer over how this played out, so searching for one is a fool’s errand. I’m thrilled for Madison, disappointed for Moore, and that’s all the truth we’re going to get.

• As far as weakly motivated excuses for large-scale productions go, I didn’t think any of them—Erivo and Grande doing Oz, A Tribute to Bond B.A. (Before Amazon), Queen Latifah doing Oz again for Quincy Jones—were bad, and I suppose I appreciate how little effort they made to justify them. They just wanted the show to be more exciting than performing the bad Original Song nominees would have been.

• In lieu of watching Adrien Brody’s indulgent and overlong speech, I recommend just listening to Daniel Blumberg’s “Overture (The Ship").” I made it out to see The Brutalist in LIEMAX, and that score really sticks with you, and so I glad to see Blumberg be recognized.

• Really curious how the various guilds feel about Costuming and Cinematography being elevated above all the other craft awards with the actor tribute approach. I thought both worked well, but I’m curious if they made promises to do other crafts this way in future years.