Sean Baker demands 'full control' over film projects
Sean Baker wants "full autonomy" over all of his films.
The 54-year-old filmmaker enjoyed huge success as the director of 'Anora', the romantic-comedy drama movie, in 2024, and Sean has now confirmed that his next project will be "in the same wheelhouse".
During an appearance on the 'It Happened in Hollywood' podcast, Sean shared: "Don't expect a Marvel film. It's not going to happen.
"I'm intentionally going to stay in the same wheelhouse and with the approximate same budget. I think that I enjoy working in this space of 100 percent independent."
'Anora' won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024, while it also earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Mikey Madison), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.
And Sean doesn't have any intention of changing his approach to film-making.
He said: "I'm not working for even a mini studio. I'm making my film independently and then going the old school route of hopefully a bidding war or somebody licensing the movie.
"I think that's the only way to have full autonomy and control over your vision. So it'll be that. Expect more of the same."
Sean is currently "exploring some ideas" for his next film project.
Asked about his next movie, Sean replied: "I'm not sure yet. I'm still exploring some ideas."
Earlier this year, Sean warned that a film's production shouldn't be "too controlled".
The acclaimed filmmaker explained that his creative process has hardly changed over the years.
Sean - whose previous directing credits include 'Four Letter Words', 'Tangerine' and 'Red Rocket' - told The Talks: "I try to keep it small, I try to keep us always in a sort of guerilla, indie, shoot from the hip sort of mentality, keeping open to serendipity and happy accidents. The only way to do that is to be controlled — you have a job to do, and you're spending people's money, and you have a limited amount of time — but you can't be too controlled.
"So what I always like to say is: you control 90 percent but then you leave 10 percent up to the film gods, because those happy accidents are what make these movies. You have to be open to real life! You try for minimal lighting, you try for real location, you take the actors and you throw them into real life and see what happens. I try my best to retain that."
Sean believes that his past success has actually complicated his work.
He explained: "It does get harder because I'm a higher profile now. It's a little bit harder. But I also work with an incredible crew that really understands that sort of DIY film-making and wanting to stay on the fringe and stay out of the Hollywood machine."
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Nothing has stopped Panahi, either. Back in 2010, he was sentenced to six years in jail for supporting anti-government protesters and creating 'propaganda against the system'. He served only two months, but he was banned from travelling outside Iran and from making films. His response was to make This Is Not a Film, a polemic on the nature of film-making shot entirely in his home on his iPhone, which made it to international festivals on a USB stick baked into a cake. Tehran Taxi (2015) was shot surreptitiously inside a moving car. It went on, in Panahi's very conspicuous absence, to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2022, he was arrested again when he asked awkward questions about the fate of two other imprisoned filmmakers and, as a consequence, was ordered to serve the rest of his 2010 sentence. 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'When the interrogator has sat you very close to the wall, blindfolded you in such a way that you can only see enough from the corner of your eye to write on a piece of paper and is standing behind you, you do wonder: who is this? What does he look like, how old is he, what does he believe?' Loading In theory, Panahi's suspended sentence is now officially served, and he should be free to apply for permission to make films legitimately. 'I think I just did what my sentence required, which was that I was banned from film-making for 20 years,' he says. 'I did 16 years of it; I think they could not renew this sentence as it came to an end.' But that doesn't mean he has been given more latitude. He will continue to film in secret; as he said in an interview with Variety during the festival, the authorities make up laws as they go. Will he be arrested again? Or confined to home? Nothing is certain, except that Jafar Panahi will continue, one way or another, to make films.
