Sean Baker Is ‘Hopeful’ Following Netflix-Warner Bros. Deal

“Anora” director Sean Baker, who is at the Red Sea Film Festival as the head of the international jury, commented on the industry’s most burning current topic while speaking at the Jeddah-based event: Netflix agreeing to buy Warner Bros., including its film and TV studios, its gaming business, HBO Max and HBO.

The director said he “doesn’t think any of us should be commenting until we all know how [the deal] is going to play out,” but that “filmmakers have to put our foot down” when it comes to preserving three-month-minimum theatrical windows.

“We should not be reducing theatrical windows, we should be expanding [them],” he added. “This is how the filmmaker wants you to see his film, and everybody else can wait for it. My next film, I don’t care what happens, I’m gonna get a hundred-day theatrical window. That’s a little bit over three months, and I think that’s a good place at this moment. When you’re going directly to streaming, it diminishes the importance of a film. The theatrical experience elevates the importance. The way you present it to the world is a very important thing.”

Baker said he feels “hopeful” given that the biggest audience for “Anora” was Gen Z, despite a general perception that younger people don’t go for the theatrical experience these days. “That’s not true,” he said of that perception. “In L.A., when I go to movies, it’s usually Gen Z. I love that younger people are seeing the value in a communal experience and also one in which their focus is entirely on the film and not being distracted by everything else in the room.”

The American director, who made Oscars history earlier this year as the first person to win four Oscars in the same night for the same movie with “Anora,” said he will not “go for the next $150 million studio thing” as the next step in his illustrious career. Asked about what’s next following the Oscars prestige, he…