Welcome to Key West writer-director Sean Baker, to be honored with the inaugural Golden Key Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. Baker will bring his latest film “Red Rocket,” about washed-up male porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex, who made appearances in adult films briefly before moving onto to careers as a model, MTV VJ, rapper and actor) who returns to his hometown on the Gulf Coast of Texas to sort his life out – and engineer his way back into the biz.

Baker is a writer, director, producer and editor who has made seven independent features in the past two decades, films notable for their keen sense of realism and for drawing sensitive performances from non-professional actors. Closest to home for Key West viewers is “The Florida Project” (2017), which scored actor Willem Dafoe and Oscar nomination, and the filmmaker the prize for Best Director from the New York Film Critics’ Circle. “Tangerine” (2015) won an Independent Spirit and two Gotham Awards. “Starlet” (2012), which screened at the inaugural Key West Film Festival, won the prestigious Robert Altman Independent Spirit Award.