Sean Baker's Independent Spirit Awards Speech Must Be Heard

"The system has to change because this is simply unsustainable."

In the final push ahead of the curtain on awards season at this Sunday’s Oscars, this weekend gave us the one-two punch of the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday (AKA the award show that gave us the now-classic ode to Laura Dern), or as host Aidy Bryant described it “Hollywood’s third or fourth biggest night,” and the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. 

With the seemingly endless array of award shows, these two are among the more beloved within the industry due to their voting bodies (the ISA’s are produced by Film Independent, a not-for-profit arts organization, and voted on by its members, while the SAGs are voted on by two committees with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, one for film and one for television, randomly selected anew each year, with the full membership available to vote for the winners). In essence, these awards center community (SAG, for instance, awards the entire ensemble of a drama series and comedy series) and celebrate the grit and tenacity of creative ingenuity.

Naturally, I was so very seated for both awards. Of course, I’m here for the fashions, the opening monologue, the flubs, the awkward moments, the winners and the memes, but what really compels me most are the speeches. It’s a hard-to-do-right art form, giving a speech, especially when you’re someone like Demi Moore or Jessica Gunning, two actors who have been heavily trophied up in the past few weeks for their performances in The Substance and Baby Reindeer respectively. How do you maintain conveying awe and genuine emotion when you keep winning again and again?

But speechgiving is broadly more difficult in the many roads one can go both in terms of form and content. Whether to be pithy or loquacious? Saccharine or flippant? Whether to name check agents or childhood teachers or God? Whether to talk about industry woes (like union busting) or tackle global issues? Whether to make it about you or about you as a vessel for others to see themselves? There really are countless ways to go, each with examples of it being done to great acclaim and examples of it nosediving. That’s the risk one takes when standing in front of a room full of peers (and millions watching at home) and being tasked with formally accepting an award.

Of the many speeches this award’s season — and there have been quite a few good ones, notably Demi Moore at the Golden Globes and Colin Farrell at the Critic’s Choice Awards, for instance — the speech delivered by Sean Baker at Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards bears examination.

It was an eloquently delivered speech that articulated a kind of art form that is at risk of going extinct if preservation efforts aren’t changed. And it was a particularly effective speech coming from a man who may very likely win the Oscar for Best Director on Sunday and be granted opportunities toward bigger paychecks on higher budget films, but who has made clear that he stands tall as an independent film lifer, one who will gladly bleed for the cause. As such, I wanted to transcribe his speech in full:

“Thank you so much. This is incredible. Film Independent, I love you. I'm going to read a little, so please forgive me. First off, Ali [Abbasi], Alonso [Ruizpalacios], Jane [Schoenbrun], and Brady [Corbet], we all know there is no best. We all made wholly original films, and it's an honor to be in this category with you. 

So thank you, Film Independent. I've said this before, but it's definitely worth repeating: Next to my parents, you've been my greatest supporter. I've been in this room with every one of my films, starting with Take Out, and it just means the world to me. Thank you so much. 

I want to thank my incredible cast and crew and two incredible producing partners, Samantha Quan and Alex Coco, and I have all my main cast here who made my job so incredibly easy. Mikey [Madison], Yura [Borisov], Mark [Eydelshteyn], Karren [Karagulian], V[ache Tovmasyan], I love you guys. I want to thank my manager Adam Kersh, Film Nation, and our distributor, Neon. Working with Neon has been an absolute dream. They gave Anora a perfect release and focused on the theatrical run first and foremost. Thank you guys. And I also want to thank Focus, Universal LA and our other overseas partners.

Now, I'm going to go really fast here, guys, but I just want to use this moment to speak about the current state of indie film, specifically how it applies to creatives. Indie film is struggling more now, right now, more than ever. Gone are the days of DVD sales that allowed for greater risk to be taken on challenging films. That revenue stream is gone, and the only way to see significant backend is to have a box office hit with profits that far exceed what any of our films will ever see, unless you are Damien Leone and strike gold with a franchise like Terrifier, but as we all know, that's an extreme rarity.

For me, and I think for many of my peers, if we're lucky, the average number of years dedicated to making a film is around three. I think most of us have worked a lot longer on our films, but let's go with three. If you are a writer-director trying to break in right now, there's a good chance you're making a film for free or making next to nothing on production or sale. How do you support yourself with little or no income for three years? Let's say you're lucky enough to be with the guilds, take the DGA and WGA minimums, and then divide them by three. Take out taxes and possibly percentages that you owe your agents, managers and lawyers, and what are you left with? It's just simply not enough to get by on in today's world, especially if one is trying to support a family. I personally do not have children, but I know for a fact that if I did, I would not be able to make the movies that I make.

Why am I talking about this today? Because I'm an indie film lifer, and I know that there are other indie film lifers in this room, those who don't see indie films as calling cards, those who don't make these films to land a series or a studio film. Some of us want to make personal films that are intended for theatrical release with subject matter that would never be greenlit by the big studios. We want complete artistic freedom and the freedom to cast who is right for the role, not who is forced to cast considering box office value or how many followers they have on social media.

The system has to change because this is simply unsustainable. We are creating product that creates jobs and revenue for the entire industry. We shouldn't be barely getting by. Creatives that are involved with projects that span years have to begin getting higher, much higher upfront fees, and again, because backend simply is not, it can't be relied upon any longer. We have to demand that. If not, indie films will simply become calling card films, and that's not what I signed up for. So let's demand what we're worth. I know that if you're in this room, you've proven that you're worth it, so let's not undervalue ourselves any longer. And we can work together. It can be filmmakers working with agencies, working with financiers, film sales companies and distributors to make indie film sustainable for creatives and keep indie film alive. And this is for all the indie film lifers who are holding on and fighting the good fight. Thank you so much.”

I highly encourage everyone to watch Baker’s full speech here. I hope his words resonate for you as much as they did for me. And I hope for the sake of the indie film-loving lifers like myself, something will change to allow for these bold, innovative and risk-taking stories to continue to be told.