The Florida Project (2017)

The Florida Project (2017) captures childhood in budget motels near Disney World with heartbreaking warmth, costing just $1.8 million—50% cheaper than the average indie drama. Sean Baker's direction and Brooklynn Prince's performance at age six, more naturalistic than most adult actors achieve, earned a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score. The film's 115-minute runtime uses vibrant colors to contrast poverty with wonder, outperforming #3 in emotional complexity by avoiding sentimentality. Its unsentimental portrayal of American precarity influenced more critics' year-end lists than the typical social realist film, cementing Baker as a master of empathetic storytelling.