Sean Baker’s Next Film Will Be a Comedy — But He Says the Pressure After Anora Is “Scary”

How do you follow up “Anora,” a film that just won both the Palme d’Or and the Oscar for Best Picture? If you’re Sean Baker, you pivot hard—and make a comedy.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Baker admitted that the weight of his recent accolades is starting to catch up with him. He’s frightened by the idea of topping, or at least matching, “Anora.”

I think the new thing that I’m dealing with is just the pressure of how do I follow up Anora? I don’t want to disappoint people, but I want to give something a little new and different. It’s just scary. I don’t know how else to say it. I just woke up. It’s scary.

Baker’s films have always walked a tonal tightrope—raw, emotional dramas with bursts of humor and humanity. But for the next one, it sounds like he’s flipping that equation.

My new thing is just leaning a little more into comedy. For a long time, I’ve made films that I would consider to be dramas or tragedies with comedic elements, and I kind of want to push it into the comedy with dramatic or tragic elements. That might be my change.

This pivot toward comedy also suggests Baker may be returning to the “Red Rocket” sandbox—a satirical, off-kilter energy that arguably suits him just as well.

There’s also a strong chance that the team behind “Anora” will return, including its distributor, Neon. “Hopefully I’m working with the same people again,” Baker said, “not only making the film, but also distributing the film. And hopefully we make another film that connects.”

Back in April, Baker told attendees at the Ivy Film Festival that he and his wife, producer Samantha Quan, had just finished location scouting for the project, with a fall shoot potentially on the table. In other words, this might be happening sooner rather than later.

Whatever Baker’s cooking next, expectations are sky-high. “Anora” added another layer of legitimacy to a filmography that already includes “Tangerine,” “The Florida Project,” and “Red Rocket.” His approach—melding non-professional actors, creative freedom, and a sense of immediacy and realism—is unlike anyone else working in American film right now. And now, with a Palme and an Oscar in his back pocket, the world’s watching.