Sean Baker Ties Walt Disney’s Record for Most Wins in One Night at Oscars 2025

Back in 2016, Anora filmmaker Sean Baker secretly shot portions of his breakout movie The Florida Project within the tightly guarded walls of Disney World. Nearly a decade later, he bested the House of Mouse with four wins at Oscars 2025, joining Walt Disney for holding the record for most Academy Awards won in a single night.

“This is my battle cry: Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen. I know I will,” the 54-year-old writer-director said from the Dolby Theatre stage. He ascended to the podium four times at the 2025 Oscars, winning for producing, directing, editing, and writing the original screenplay for the best picture of the year. He had been predicted to win most of these awards. But his star, Mikey Madison, pulled off a major upset over Demi Moore in the best actress race to boot. With his sweep, Baker becomes only the second person to win four Oscars in the same night and the first person to win four Oscars for a single film.

In the past decade, four filmmakers have won three statues in a single evening. Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert swept the 2023 Oscars with awards for producing, directing, and writing the original screenplay for that year’s best picture. This same triple crown was achieved by Parasite’s Bong Joon-ho (with the film also winning best international feature) and Birdman’s Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2020 and 2015, respectively.

But until now, Walt Disney was the only person to achieve more than a trifecta. Back in 1954, Disney won four competitive Oscars across four separate projects—best documentary feature (The Living Desert), best documentary brief subject (The Alaskan Eskimo), best cartoon brief subject (Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom), and best two-reel brief subject (Bear Country). Upon accepting his fourth award of the night, Disney joked from the stage, “I’ve just gotta say one more word. It’s wonderful—but I think this is my year to retire.”

Baker, who became a first-time Oscar nominee with Anora, made no such assurances in his acceptance speeches. After winning the Academy Award for best director, Baker thanked presenter Quentin Tarantino for casting leading lady Mikey Madison in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, for without that move, “there would be no Anora.” He later thanked his mother, who “introduced me to cinema at five years old” and was also celebrating her birthday. “Happy birthday, mom, I love you,” Baker said onstage.

While accepting the award for best editing, Baker had some fun regarding his dual roles as director and editor. “I truly appreciate the recognition for this, but God if you saw that footage, I saved this film in the edit, trust me,” he quipped. “That director should never work again.” The filmmaker went on to refer to editing as “half of my directing and a third of my screenwriting.” As for the three people he allows into the editing room? His wife, fellow Anora producer Samantha Quan, fellow producer Alex Coco, and his dog, Bunson. “He gave me some pretty good notes.”

Anora, which earned six nods in the 2025 Oscar nominations, stars Madison as Ani, a Brooklyn sex worker who falls for a Russian oligarch’s son (Mark Eydelshteyn), then sees her fairy tale fade away with the arrival of a henchman with a heart of gold (Yura Borisov). “I want to thank the sex worker community,” Baker said during his first speech of the night, for best original screenplay, offering members of that contingent his “deepest respect” for sharing their stories.

After winning the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes, the $6 million film has been living out a Cinderella tale that somewhat mimics the movie itself. Anora swept the DGAs, PGAs, and Critics Choice Awards in recent weeks, before dominating at the Independent Spirit Awards. Not even a late-stage rush from Conclave, which earned top honors at the BAFTA and the SAG Awards, could halt the momentum. As his film won best picture, Baker delivered the night’s closing refrain: “Long live independent film!”