Unofficial Guide to South By Southwest 2014

Webb most recently directed the smash hit The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Sally Field which grossed over $750 million worldwide. Upcoming, he helmed the latest chapter in the Spider-Man legacy The Amazing Spider-Man 2, out May 2.

Webb made his feature film debut with the acclaimed (500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The film was nominated for two Golden Globe® Awards, including Best Picture, and The National Board of Review honored Webb with their Spotlight Award, which recognizes outstanding directorial debuts.

Webb began his career as a music video director. He has been honored with several MTV Video Music Awards, including the Best Director Award for Green Day’s “21 Guns,” Best Rock Video in 2006 for AFI’s “Miss Murder” and Best Group Video for The All-American Rejects’ “Move Along.” The Music Video Production Association also honored him as Director of the Year for his work with Weezer, AAR and My Chemical Romance.

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Jason Blum is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, a multi-media production company that has pioneered a new model of studio filmmaking- producing high-quality micro-budget films for wide release. Since its launch in 2000, Blumhouse has produced more than 30 feature films including the highly-profitable Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge and Sinister franchises. Eight of Blumhouse’s recent films have grossed a combined $1 billion at the worldwide box-office on budgets under $50 million.

Blumhouse's recent films include The Purge, under its first-look deal with Universal Pictures, which opened to more than $34 million with a budget of just $3 million and Insidious: Chapter Two which opened to over $40 million with just a $5m budget.

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Lena Dunham stars in the HBO series, GIRLS, which she created and serves as executive producer, writer, and director. Dunham won two Golden Globe Awards for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical” and “Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical,” both categories in which she received nominations this year. She recently made history by becoming the first female director to win a DGA Award for “Television Comedy Series.” Additionally, she received 7 Emmy® nominations, the show was honored by AFI as one of the best “TV Programs of the Year," and won a WGA Award for "Best New Series."
In 2010, her feature Tiny Furniture world premiered at SXSW, winning the Jury Award, and ultimately earning her an Independent Spirit Award for “Best First Screenplay.” Dunham signed a deal with Random House Publishing for a collection of essays to be titled Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned.

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Casey Neistat is a New York-based filmmaker. He is the writer, director, editor, and star of the series The Neistat Brothers on HBO and won the John Cassavetes Award at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards for producing the film Daddy Long Legs. His main body of work consists of dozens of short films he has released exclusively on the Internet, including regular contributions to the New York Times critically acclaimed Op-Doc series. His online films have been viewed over 50,000,000 times in the last 3 years.
Recently 20th Century Fox asked him to make a promotional video for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," centered around the theme of chasing your dreams. He flew to the Philippines and used the entire budget given to him for the video ($25,000) to help with the Typhoon relief.

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