Why Are All The Oscar-Winning Filmmakers Broke?

so if you paid attention to the Oscars at all this year one thing that was really clear is that there's still a big appreciation out there for original filmmaking the breakout winners like Anora and the brutalist were Indie movies much more than they were massive Hollywood Blockbusters which is great news for anyone interested in non-s superhero filmmaking but when you dig a little bit deeper you start to find out that the reality is quite a bit darker because even though this year's winners were dominated by Scrappy Indie Productions it turns out that the filmmakers behind

them are not doing all that well financially success in entertainment is supposed to kind of go hand inand with making money so how is it possible that directors can succeed at the very highest levels and still be broke and if those people are hurting then what hope does that leave for the rest of us trying to make a living with cameras so in this video we're going to dive into why America's best filmmakers are broke what that means for you and the future of the industry and how a surprising lesson from Leonardo da Vinci might

give you some peace of mind okay so right off the bat what am I even talking about if you don't follow industry news why am I claiming that some of the best filmmakers in the world are broke and what does that have to do with you well first off I'm not claiming anything I'm just repeating what several high-profile filmmakers have been saying recently in public most notably britty Corbett who made the brutalist and Shawn Baker who made a Nora between them they took home eight Oscars which is pretty insane for films whose combined budgets are

less than a single season of some of the TV shows I've worked on the brutalist Daniel Anora the Brut Anora and both of those people used their platform or at least a chunk of the attention they were getting anyways to say the same thing filmmakers today are struggling to survive on the Mark Marin podcast Corbett actually said he made literally zero doar from the brutalist despite all the critical attention and it was such a surprising thing that Marin actually stopped and asked him to clarify both my partner and I made zero doar on on the

last two films that we made so zero uh Yes actually zero so we had to just sort of like live off of a paycheck from three years ago and obviously the timing during an awards campaign and having to travel every two or three days was less than ideal he also made it very clear that he wasn't alone in that experience when he said I I've spoken to many uh filmmakers that that have the films that are nominated this year that can't pay their rent I mean that's a real thing it's a I mean of you're

not paid to to be promoting a film it's not that hard to figure out he's probably referring or at least partly referring to Shawn Baker here as the two are friends and baker has also been very vocal on his Indie money issues in one interview Shawn said indie film is struggling right now more than ever 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 and basically he's saying here that for what he's earning on his films he

would find it hard to support a family at least that's how I read that so what's going on here because aren't you supposed to be able to get rich when you do well in Show Business you sure about that well there's a couple reason reasons that we'll get more into but the short version is that to make a film from start to finish like these guys did takes a long time like years and while there might be a decent director's fee or something attached to the project initially there's so much unpaid labor that goes into

promoting and finishing a film that most people don't even realize and as it stretches on for years that paycheck just doesn't last Corbett directly said he was so busy doing promotion for free that he couldn't take any other jobs and basically didn't earn anything for 3 years on top of that the economic model of the past is pretty much dead it used to be that a film's profits were based on an initial infusion of cash from the theatrical release but then also there'd be a second round of profit that would come later through DVD sales

and rentals and stuff like that but as we know now streaming services have completely torpedoed that model and filmmakers haven't quite figured out how to make that money back like it used to be you took a big risk with the initial investment but then if it went well you'd get a cut of the profits later on or at least that was the theory but since no one buys or rents anything anymore that's gone and really the streamers are kind of the only only people who are making much after the theatrical release is over then add

to that that fewer and fewer people are actually going to the movie theaters these days it kind of makes the Box Office return even less and then it starts to Doom spiral cuz movies aren't really getting cheaper to make it's just that there's no clear path to making that money back anymore unless you have a franchise that sells toys or something and if you can't make your money back then there won't be a next project now if that sounds brutal it's because it is I'm not going to sugarcoat it but at the same time that

all of this is true I'm also having a very different experience as a film professional now I'm just some random documentary DP in Canada and I haven't won even a single hoscar and probably will not but the postco years have been some of my most profitable ever and I don't really feel like I'm struggling that much I mean I'm not over here making millions and I drive a 15-year-old car so my standards aren't exactly high but for my pretty modest middle class needs even in stupidly expensive Toronto I'm doing fine so how can both situations

be true in what world am I more financially secure than Shan Baker one of the best working filmmakers alive doesn't that seem a bit crazy well the simple truth is that only one of us is actually a filmmaker in the literal sense of the word and here's what I mean by that so I a freelance cinematographer who specializes in documentaries if you want to tell a real story and you need someone who functions at a high level pretty much anywhere in the world uh is good at forming relationships with strangers and has a good eye

at least in my very biased opinion you offer me a day rate and if I like the project and we think we'll get along I'll come and shoot it for you pretty simple sometimes I'll direct sometimes I'll do a little commercial here and there but the basic situation is the same I don't write the scripts I don't do the editing I don't pitch the projects and I stay away from producing as much as I possibly can I'm not a filmmaker I'm a film worker very occasionally I'll find a story I really like and I'll decide

to make something myself as an actual filmmaker but that's pretty rare and I almost always expected to lose money now sha Baker and Brady Corbett are film makers yes they're directors but they're also doing so many other things they're literally bringing the film from nothing through to the Oscars plus months and months of promotion and making the whole thing happen mainly because of their will and perseverance can you see the difference now you can bet that most of the crew working on Anora or the brutalist made money too and it's ultimately just The filmmakers Who

come out so far behind for most of the reasons we talked about it's insane to say but once all the hours are counted it's the people who do the most to Champion a film who usually make the least now I'm not saying that these guys are on Skid Row or anything and if they wanted to make money they could like if sha Baker decided he really wanted to make money this year I'm pretty sure you could sign on to direct a new Apple TV series and get a fat paycheck like tomorrow likewise if Brady Corbett

jump back into directing commercials after this I bet he'll get offers from all over the place from the biggest brands in the world but then they won't be there as filmmakers they'll be executing on someone else's vision and that's an important difference and that's really the central point of this video becoming a professional full-time filmmaker just isn't a real thing for 99% of people in 2025 especially if you want to live a middle class standard of life there's still lots of money in film and video and media in general but to get it almost everyone

including Oscar winners is going to need some sort of day job and that's Where Da Vinci comes into this whole thing because when I say things like how it's almost impossible to live as a true filmmaker it's easy to get discouraged and feel like it used to be possible that it just isn't anymore but the truth is that it's almost never been possible possible to live as a self-directed artist I mean Da Vinci one of the most famous artists and inventors of all time had day jobs pretty much his entire life they happen to be

adjacent to his creative passions which is great but he wasn't able to spend his time just following his own interests he didn't paint the Mona Lisa because he was inspired it was a commission from a rich silk Merchant he spent years building Siege equipment for a murderous Italian dictator because it was the only way he could fund his studio in Leonard Da Vinci if Da Vinci was living today it would be like if apple or meta hired him to paint murals in their Lobby or something in his free time he can doodle the vetruvian man

or invent the bicycle but he spent a lot of his time working a day job because someone Rich paid him to do it film making and the Arts in general are the same today as they were back then because there really never have been all that many actual filmmakers in the purest sha Baker is sense of the word and there really haven't been all that many pure artists of that type at any point in History either who could just pursue their craft without some sort of day job sure a few Mega Rich Dukes or people

descended from royalty like Lord Byron or something are an exception but that's because they didn't have to worry about bills if you work in this industry at all it won't take long before you hear someone say some version of the expression one for the meal and one for the real which basically just means you do one job that puts food on the table so that the next one can be a passion project and realistically that's a pretty ambitious ratio for most people because at least in my career it's been more like 10 for the meal

and one for the real and I'm okay with that but it's worth paying atten attention to for anyone out there looking to become a filmmaker personally I love that Shawn and Brady are doing them all for the real because as an audience member and a fan of their work I get to watch Incredible movies Anora was my favorite movie of the year and I actually interviewed the DP Drew Daniels on this channel a little while ago so check that out if you want I have so much respect for those people and the work they produce

but for me personally I can't do it I need those day jobs to keep me going until I eventually find a project I'm so passionate about I can't stand the idea of not doing it and make no mistake if you want to be a filmmaker on the level of those people you'll need that kind of passion to even stand a chance at pulling it off like when I look at my one attempt at directing a feature like not just shooting it but directing it I can say it's so much harder than I was prepared and

if I wasn't fully obsessed with the story I'd never have been able to get through it when you hear Brady or Shawn talk about their films and what it took to make them it's clear they had superum levels of dedication and scrappiness there's a directors on directors interview out there on YouTube somewhere where they start talking about having meeting after meeting after meeting about the precise runtime of their movies even though no one had even seen them yet I knew going into this film to Anora that it was going to be 220 I had to

sign a contract saying I would deliver the film at 210 that killed me cuz I knew I was lying when I signed that contract I knew it and yet I I thought okay but I don't even understand am I going to be held to this it's it's not cool and it's because I live with that stress for over a year for a year and that's the kind of thing that'll drive an artist insane so to keep doing that again again and again takes a special kind of person and a different kind of dedication and to

do that over and over without stopping to pad the bank account with those meal jobs in between it needs a superhuman level of Devotion to the craft assuming you don't have that kind of devotion which unless you're an extreme outlier you probably don't the takeaway here is that you will most likely need a day job in film that could take many forms both inside and outside of the film industry you could make amazing films while holding down a job as a chemical engineer and you'd probably be a lot less stressed about money if you want

to stay inside the industry that most likely means working as crew that could be as a director like on a big Netflix show or it could be as a dolly grip on a Hallmark movie of the week you could shoot cinematic weddings or edit social media reels there's a massive range when it comes to this stuff but the important difference is that these jobs are not your personal brainchild like Anora was for sea in my case I pay my bills shooting other people's documentaries and TV shows as phographer I might have an important role in

the project and I very well could be heavily involved in the planning and shaping of the story but it's clear that I'm not the filmmaker and most of the time neither is the director hopefully you can see the distinction there it's small but also huge the good news is that I love my day job actually most of the time I prefer working as a DP than a filmmaker because to be honest I've only ever been a filmmaker maybe five or six times in my whole career but that's more than enough to understand what it requires

to make a film being a filmmaker means sweating all the small stuff all the time and if you don't love your story you'll never see it through in my day job as a DP I enjoy a lot of the best aspects from the film making process so like being out in the world in an interesting and dynamic work environment in a way that's creatively satisfying but after a few weeks or a few months of work I go home while the filmmaker is really just getting started plus I get paid sometimes pretty well regardless of what

happens with the project and I don't hate that either of course sometimes not having creative control is incredibly frustrating and you'll wish you were the one falling the shots and in those times the thought of being the filmmaker can seem pretty appealing but don't be fooled if you want to do it like some of those Oscar winners it will do its best to crush you okay so then why even bother am I just saying that film making is the worst and everyone should just get day jobs on mediocre stuff and collect a paycheck no definitely

not and I'd argue that if you're just doing that you're going to be in the trouble long term in this modern industry where middle class crew jobs seem to be drying up to stand out it's super important that you make work that showcases the best you can do and the unique Vision you bring to the table and since you're often a bit constrained on your paying gigs like you're shooting to someone else's plan if you want to do your own thing and you want to do it your own way you got to do it yourself

I.E become the filmmaker then if all goes well you now have a calling card piece that people will see and if it's good they'll want you to bring those talents to their projects which then boost the quality of your day job gigs that come in and so on every time you go through this cycle you'll move a little bit higher up like right now in the very near future I bet grd Cor has a ton of offers in his inbox for everything from Fashion commercials to Amazon Prime series he gave a lot to make the

brutalist and if he chooses to now he can capitalize it whether or not he does it is totally up to him and if you were in his position there really is no easy answer personally I'd probably take a year to regroup and make a serious chunk of cash while my name was hot then come back for another stab at a project with a healthy bit of savings behind me you out there watching it might feel totally different and think that if the roles were reversed you'd go the complete offic Direction and do pure art only

there is no wrong decision there and Brady and Shawn should have quite a few options after this selfishly I hope they just go straight into the next Indie Masterpiece but I'm not sure I'd be able to do the same myself the point here isn't to say what the right move is and who knows maybe for their next films they'll get both artistic control and a nice check the point is that the dichotomy between Commerce and creativity is going to be a balance that everyone in this business will have to find on their own if you've

got three kids going to college you're going to have a different Outlook than some some with no family who can just take off to Romania for 6 months of shooting I don't know what would you do let me know in the comments so what's the ultimate takeaway here what can we learn from the public Financial struggles facing some of the year's most awarded filmmakers well firstly it's that for 99% of the people working in the film and media business you can't make a good living just doing whatever you want but that's never really been an

option for Creative people at any point in history outside a handful of famous Elites almost everyone needs is a commercial arm to their business whatever that might be which means a day job it might be on big sets or in a rental house somewhere or it might be in a completely different field but you'll have to be able to pay the bill somehow and that can be pretty brutal for utter type filmmakers now if you really really don't want to do that and you're singularly focused on making your own work that's extremely commendable and the

world needs more people like you but if that's the plan you have to acknowledge what Shan and Brady are saying about this struggle and accept that as a fact of your life we can push for that to change we can vote with our wallet by going back to the theater and we can support independent film all day which I hope we do movie theaters especially independently owned theaters are struggling and it's up to us to support them but in the current landscape as it is now you're really not making it very easy on yourself if

you go the art route alone do I wish it were different for sure but it's the way it is right now so you and I have to make it work anyways the sooner we do that and figure out what your particular brand of day job looks like the safer you'll be I guess I really just wanted to make this video to get the point out there because in the age of YouTube University there's a lot of people who are chasing the dream of being a filmmaker Without Really knowing what that means it's still totally worth

going after but you should at least understand what the reality is at the same time we need highquality independent films more than ever because they tell stories that are often hard to get funded through the traditional Studio system the studios don't want to risk it on things that they don't think they can make money on and that's how you end up with nothing but Marvel movies in the theaters but this whole situation has been a very good lesson on film making economics in 2025 don't get me wrong I'm not saying these guys are living on

the street or anything but they really didn't come out ahead from these projects financially anyways now I'm sure they can have their pick of any number of lucrative day jobs if they want and it's going to be really interesting to see what they do next so what would you do in their position and how do you personally find that balance between art and commerce let me know see you [Music]