Vancouver-born Anora producer Samantha Quan on 'wonderful and discombobulating' journey to Oscars

Anora producer Samantha Quan can't help but get emotional when thinking about the film's fairytale journey.

The Vancouver native calls the sex worker dramedy's rise as an Oscars front-runner "wonderful and discombobulating," especially given its modest $6-million US budget.

The movie is up for best picture at Sunday's awards show, and Quan quips its budget was "less than a lot of the catering budgets" of its competitors.

"It can get a little overwhelming because what's happening now is even bigger than the dreams I ever imagined," she says, shedding tears while speaking recently from her Los Angeles home.

Quan, who is married to Anora director Sean Baker, says she hasn't had time to process the film's awards season success. Earlier this month, it was named best picture at Critics Choice, Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America and Indie Spirit awards.

"I feel like a kid going to Disneyland and just being like, 'Oh my gosh. I can't believe I'm here. It's so shiny and crazy,'" she says.

In some ways, the film's ascent mirrors its own Cinderella story. It follows Mikey Madison's Brooklyn stripper Anora, whose life takes a dramatic turn when she meets and hastily marries the reckless son of a Russian billionaire, Vanya, played by Mark Eydelshteyn.

"Watching it, I do think deep down in our hearts, we all want to feel like our dreams can come true and fairytales can come true. That's the reason why we root for Anora," says the 49-year-old Quan.

"The fact that she might have met her prince, I think it keeps us wanting that for her because we want that for all of us."

On Sunday, Anora will compete for best picture against Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two, as well as Emilia Pérez, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Wicked, The Brutalist, I'm Still Here, The Substance and Nickel Boys.

The film is up for six Oscars in total, including best director and screenplay for Baker and best actress for Madison. 

A passion for indie film

Quan met Baker at a gym class in L.A. and they started dating. At the time, she was an actor with small roles in TV shows including CBS's NCIS: Los Angeles and ABC's Castle.

"[Sean] came up to me with a DVD and he said, 'I went to this film festival and I saw this movie and I thought you might like it.' I watched it and all I thought was, 'Oh my gosh, why is it so grainy?'" she recalls.

"It's because it was an indie film. Little did I know that that would become the thing I loved the most."

Baker sought Quan's help on a 2015 short film for fashion label Kenzo, but their first true cinematic collaboration began with the 2017 drama The Florida Project.

Inspired by the naturalistic performances in Korean dramedy Miracle on 1st Street, Baker asked Quan to coach the young, inexperienced cast of the film, which follows the adventures of a six-year-old girl living with her unemployed single mother.

Quan received an associate producer credit on that film and took on full producer duties for Baker's 2021 comedy Red Rocket, and then Anora.

Baker's interest in the lives of sex workers began with his 2012 drama Starlet, set in the adult film world. Since then, he and Quan have gathered many first-hand stories from sex workers, noticing a theme that ultimately inspired Anora.

"There were a couple stories we'd heard about young women who married the wrong guy and had to somehow figure their way out of it."

They brought on Toronto writer Andrea Werhun, who penned a memoir about her time as an escort called Modern Whore, as a chief consultant on the film.

Work-life balance a challenge 

Quan says she was involved in nearly every aspect of Anora, from helping to conceive the story to casting to editing, where she'd be "sitting right behind Sean with our dog, looking at every shot and being an extra set of eyes."

"As an actor, I always felt like something was missing. I wanted to be more involved than, 'You come in, you say your lines and then you go.' I wanted to be a part of all of it. And the way that Sean works and the way we work together, I get to do that."

Quan says work-life balance can be challenging when working with your romantic partner. 

"You're tempted to work all the time," she says.

But she thinks there's a reason there are several couples behind this year's Oscar-nominated films, including Villeneuve and Tanya Lapointe of Dune: Part Two and Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold of The Brutalist.

"It's because when you have a life like this, it's your whole life," she says.

On top of that, you can be completely honest with one another, for better or worse.

"With Sean and I, sometimes it may be difficult, but we know we always have each other's backs. I have no ulterior motive when it comes to him and the work. I want it to be great. I want him to be happy. I want the vision to be what he imagined it to be," she says.

"And to be able to share that, it's a really lovely dream."