‘Anora’ wins top Hollywood producer and director prizes

Hollywood producers and directors voted “Anora” the greatest movie of the year on Saturday, solidifying its position as the movie to beat at the next Oscars.

Just one day after winning the top US critics’ prize, Sean Baker’s black comedy, which tells the story of an exotic dancer’s whirlwind romance gone bad, won the coveted Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America top prizes.

“My imposter syndrome is skyrocketing right now!” said Baker, a 53-year-old indie director, previously best known in arthouse circles for his empathetic portrayals of life in US subcultures, as he accepted his prize at a swanky Beverly Hills DGA gala.

Baker thanked his producers for being “able to pull off a USD 6 million film, shot on film, in New York City in 2023 — almost impossible.”

‘Anora’ won the Cannes film festival top prize Palme d’Or back in May, yet had more recently lagged behind other films including ‘Emilia Perez’ in terms of Oscar nominations.

Besides Saturday’s coup, ‘Anora’ also won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards on Friday, propelling it as a renewed favorite for the Academy Awards — which will take place on 2 March.

Accepting his prize from Christoper Nolan, last year’s DGA winner, Baker joked that campaigning for Hollywood’s seemingly never-ending awards season had made him feel like he was “actually doing work” for “the first time.”

“I’ve been able to play and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world, being able to do the thing I’ve wanted to do since I was five years old,” said Baker.

The director, whose films mostly deal with sex work and pornography, acknowledged that he was relieved his mother had not seen his most recent, more explicit effort, but he also praised her for supporting his career.

Including the most recent two winners, “Oppenheimer” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” 19 of the previous 21 DGA winners have also won the Oscar for best director in the same year.

The DGA prize for best movie from a first-time filmmaker went to another Oscar best picture nominee, ‘Nickel Boys’, from RaMell Ross.

It was too “rare” to see the Black gaze portrayed in Hollywood film, according to Ross, whose picture about abuses at a juvenile boys’ rehabilitation school in Florida in the 1960s was shot as if from the characters’ eyes.

Meanwhile, ‘Anora’ took home the PGA top award on Saturday in Los Angeles.