3 movie makers from South Glens Falls share in Anora Oscar win

Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: When indie film ‘Anora’ swept the Oscars on Sunday, three South Glens Falls natives basked in the glow.

Brothers Stephen Phelps and Christopher Phelps and lifelong friend Ryan Fitzgerald worked on the film.

Anora won Best Picture, Best Actress for Mikey Madison, and filmmaker Sean Baker won Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Editing.

Stephen, Anora’s Production Designer, was at the Academy Awards and joined cast and crew on stage for the Best Picture win that closed the night.

Ryan was Anora’s Art Director, and Christopher was Set Decorator.

The $6 million film was shot “for not a lot of money but with the blood and sweat of its incredible cast and crew,” Mr. Baker said from the stage.

Christopher told The Chronicle in January, “Our goal is to make films.”

Even before the win, he said of the Oscar attention, “This kind of path opens up connections. We just know so many more people that could help us get things done,” like a feature film of their own.

The three South High grads and friends grew up making movies “for as long as I can remember,” Christopher said in January. Today, based in Brooklyn, their production company Ursidae Parade makes indie films, shorts and music videos for artists including the Black Crowes.

Hudson Falls native Brett Bull’s song ‘Strip Club’ is on the Anora soundtrack

Brett Bull, a 2013 graduate of Hudson Falls High School, is another local with a hand in Anora, Sean Baker’s Best Picture Academy Award winner.

Brett’s original song “Hit the Strip” was used in the movie’s soundtrack.

Brett tells The Chronicle, he was a student at Potsdam State when a student who’d heard his demo CD introduced him to family friend Bryan LaMontagne, a Boston music producer.

The two collaborated on “Hit the Strip,” Brett says. The song “made it into Crucial Music,” a catalogue based in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles. “It eventually landed in the Oscar winning film, Anora.”

Writing in the third person, Brett wrote The Chronicle, “He thanks his mother, Actor, singer and teacher Georgianna Bull, for introducing him to all forms of music.”

“I was extremely young [when I started] listening to beats and writing lyrics at home,” Brett recalled in an article published by SUNY Potsdam.

Brett is a school psychologist and musician in South Carolina, his mom added in a message to The Chronicle.

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