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To commemorate the 25th edition of the SXSW Film Festival<\/a>, we continue our weekly alumni spotlight on careers launched, artists discovered, powerful performances, and more with filmmaker Sean Baker<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Baker’s directorial debut Four Letter Words<\/em> premiered at SXSW in 2001. In 2012, he brought his drama Starlet<\/em> starring Dree Hemingway<\/strong> which premiered in Narrative Feature Competition. Besedka Johnson<\/strong> won a special jury recognition for her performance. In 2015, Baker wrote and directed his fifth feature Tangerine,<\/em> a breakout hit shot on an iPhone 5. Baker’s critically-acclaimed The Florida Project<\/em> is currently playing in theaters and is being praised for Baker’s direction and performances by Willem Dafoe<\/strong>, and newcomer Brooklynn Prince<\/strong>. The film is on numerous “Top Ten Lists” with many nominations and awards this season.<\/p>\n We are honored to share his #SXSWFilm25 story with you.<\/p>\n “I might not have kept going if it wasn’t for SXSW. Four Letter Words<\/em> was my first feature and getting into SXSW meant everything. The festival was my first champion and supporter \u2013 I don’t know if I would be here if not for them.”<\/p>\n Stay tuned to SXSW News<\/a> for more 25th edition stories.<\/p>\n Grab your Film Badge<\/a> today for primary access to all SXSW Film events including world premieres, roundtables, workshops, and parties. Register to attend<\/a> by Friday, January 12<\/strong> and save. Book your hotel through SXSW Housing & Travel<\/a> for the best available rates.<\/p>\n Stay tuned for the 2018 SXSW Film Festival lineup which will be announced in January.<\/p>\n Follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, and SXSW News<\/a> for the latest SXSW coverage, announcements, and updates.<\/p>\n See you in March! <\/p>\n Dustin Finkelstein\/WireImage<\/p>\n The post 25 Years of SXSW Film Festival – Sean Baker<\/a> appeared first on SXSW<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source: SxSW Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To commemorate the 25th edition of the SXSW Film Festival, we continue our weekly alumni spotlight on careers launched, artists discovered,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":2662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-2661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-careering"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/107\/2017\/12\/141084759AP001_Starlet_Phot-640x360.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paqOTj-GV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Join Us For SXSW 2018<\/h3>\n