---
name: "Sean Baker"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/sean-baker"
fi1m_id: "sean-baker"
imdb_id: "nm0048918"
tmdb_id: 118415
wikidata_id: "Q7441419"
roles: ["Director","Writer","Producer"]
born: "26 February 1971"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 85
average_as: "director"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-10-03T03:35:36.028701+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Sean Baker

## Identity

Sean Baker

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/sean-baker
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** sean-baker
- **IMDb ID:** nm0048918
- **TMDB ID:** 118415
- **Wikidata ID:** Q7441419
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Baker, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7441419, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048918/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/118415

Director and writer. Born 26 February 1971 in Summit, New Jersey, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 26 February 1971, Summit, New Jersey, USA
- **Active:** 2015–present
- **Also known as:** 숀 베이커, 辛貝克, Sean S. Baker
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 3 directing, 1 other
- **Frequently works with:** [Chris Bergoch](https://film.one/person/chris-bergoch.md), [Karren Karagulian](https://film.one/person/karren-karagulian.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 4 Oscars (4 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 85, as director, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 86 (2), 2020s 76 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 85 to 86 across 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 3, Comedy 2, Romance 1
- **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $69m across 3 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Baker, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7441419, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048918/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/118415

## Streaming the US now

- **The Roku Channel:** [*The Florida Project*](https://film.one/film/the-florida-project.md) (88)
- **Disney+:** [*Anora*](https://film.one/film/anora.md) (84)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Tangerine*](https://film.one/film/tangerine.md) (84)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Sean Baker

> Sean Baker makes funny, troubling films about people short of money without demanding that they behave well. We rate him highly for that generosity, though his habit of editing his own work can leave good scenes running too long.

The children in *The Florida Project* (2017) are busy playing and misbehaving around a motel near Disney World. Baker gives them time to enjoy themselves, while their parents’ lack of money remains a worry rather than the subject of every scene. We were moved by Moonee’s pleasure in the place, because her mother’s struggle to keep them housed never quite lets us relax. Lorne Balfe’s music barely registers against the children’s noise, a useful restraint in a film that could so easily insist on our pity.

*Take Out* (2004), co-directed with Shih-Ching Tsou, had already established his interest in immigrant lives on the margins. The iPhone-shot *Tangerine* (2015) brought wider attention to his work, but the people remained the point. Street casting and improvisation recur in his work, helping unfamiliar actors seem at ease on screen.

His generosity is tested usefully by Bria Vinaite’s Halley in *The Florida Project*. She is abrasive enough to wear us down, and Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch allow her to stay that way. Affection for her daughter does not make her easier company, nor does the writing ask us to approve of everything she does. Vinaite makes Halley’s dwindling patience felt without asking us to forgive it in advance.

In *Anora* (2024), he turns to a faster, louder comedy, with Mikey Madison as a Brooklyn stripper who marries an oligarch’s son. Baker’s editing makes the courtship a rush of parties, a jet and fireworks. Cinematographer Drew Daniels keeps Ani at the centre of attention rather than gawping at the money, while Stephen Phelps’s production design gives the mansion the air of somewhere bought but barely inhabited. Madison carries the film through the commotion. It is his funniest film.

He is less reliable when deciding what to cut. Editing *The Florida Project*, he allows episodes to repeat pleasures and worries already understood; in *Anora*, roughly twenty minutes of the middle stretch feel surplus to requirements. That is a recurring weakness worth naming in films we otherwise recommend so warmly. Start with the motel, provided a wandering plot does not put you off.

## Biography

Sean Baker (born 26 February 1971) is an American filmmaker. He studied film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and began his career making independent features.

He is known for directing, writing, editing and producing films including *Take Out* (2004), *Starlet* (2012), *Tangerine* (2015), *The Florida Project* (2017), *Red Rocket* (2021) and *Anora* (2024). He also co-created the television series *Greg the Bunny* (2002–2006).

*Anora* won the Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and four Academy Awards in 2025: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Baker is married to producer Samantha Quan.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

### Directed (3) — the average rests on these

- *Anora* (2024), Fi1m 84, Writer, Casting, Editor, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/anora.md)
- *The Florida Project* (2017), Fi1m 88, Editor, Director, Producer, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-florida-project.md)
- *Tangerine* (2015), Fi1m 84, Writer, Director of Photography, Cinematography, Camera Operator, Editor, Casting, Director, Casting Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/tangerine.md)

### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *The Last Showgirl* (2024), Fi1m 68, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/the-last-showgirl.md)

## Complete filmography (25)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *I Want Your Sex* (2026), Thanks — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/i-want-your-sex.md)
- *Sandiwara* (2026), Director, Writer, Editor
- *Together Forever* (2026), Thanks
- *Left-Handed Girl* (2025), Editor, Producer, Screenplay
- *Modern Whore* (2025), Executive Producer
- *The Last Showgirl* (2024), Thanks — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/the-last-showgirl.md)
- *Anora* (2024), Producer, Director, Writer, Editor, Casting — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/anora.md)
- *The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed* (2024), Executive Producer
- *Love in the Time of Fentanyl* (2023), Executive Producer
- *Devil In Suburbia* (2022), series, Post Production Supervisor
- *Red Rocket* (2021), Casting, Editor, Driver, Sound Designer, Director, Writer, Producer
- *Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes* (2020), Actor
- *Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore* (2019), Director, Producer, Sound, Camera Operator
- *Colours* (2019), Executive Producer, Assistant Director
- *The Florida Project* (2017), Writer, Director, Editor, Producer — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/the-florida-project.md)
- *Tangerine* (2015), Director, Writer, Casting, Editor, Director of Photography, Producer, Camera Operator, Casting Director — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/tangerine.md)
- *Starlet* (2012), Director, Writer, Editor, Camera Operator, Producer
- *Prince of Broadway* (2010), Director, Writer, Director of Photography, Editor, Producer
- *Warren the Ape* (2010), series, Director, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Take Out* (2008), Director, Writer, Editor, Producer, Director of Photography, Sound
- *Stalker* (2002), Editor
- *Greg the Bunny* (2002), series, Director, Editor, Director of Photography, Writer, Sound Designer, Creator
- *Four Letter Words* (2000), Director, Writer, Editor
- *Hi-Fi* (2000), Director, Writer
- *Ti Amo!*, Director, Writer, Producer, Editor, Casting

## Gallery

- ![Sean Baker](https://film.one/media/person/10592/gallery-290cf0213e48.jpg) Sean Baker — Frank Sun, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Sean_Baker_at_the_2024_Toronto_International_Film_Festival_2_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![NAS Jacksonville, Florida (August 31, 2016) - Arianne Miller, deputy director, and Sean Baker, lead designer, with the Officer of Personnel Management (OPM) LAB](https://film.one/media/person/10592/gallery-a3d371251b68.jpg) NAS Jacksonville, Florida (August 31, 2016) - Arianne Miller, deputy director, and Sean Baker, lead designer, with the Officer of Personnel Management (OPM) LAB — NAVFAC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/160831-N-PA772-002_%2829415243202%29.jpg/1280px-160831-N-PA772-002_%2829415243202%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Sean Baker](https://film.one/media/person/10592/gallery-f7c58f685b8d.jpg) Sean Baker — Image via TMDB
- ![Sean Baker](https://film.one/media/person/10592/gallery-17d4eb9fb9ee.jpg) Sean Baker — Image via TMDB
- ![Sean Baker](https://film.one/media/person/10592/gallery-d787e298e61f.jpg) Sean Baker — Image via TMDB
- ![Sean Baker](https://film.one/media/person/10592/gallery-296f4ecb93a7.jpg) Sean Baker — Image via TMDB
- ![Sean Baker](https://film.one/media/person/10592/gallery-a05efa64278b.jpg) Sean Baker — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 4 won

- 2025: Best Film Editing (won), for *Anora*
- 2025: Best Director (won), for *Anora*
- 2025: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (won), for *Anora*
- 2025: Best Picture (won), for *Anora*

### Cannes Film Festival — 1 won

- 2024: Palme d'Or (won), for *Anora*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/sean-baker