05/06/2025
Spotlight on Wade Sellers, the 2025 S.C. Governor’s Award for the Arts, Artist Category Winner!
Read more about Wade over on The Hub | 🔗 bit.ly/4jYwAie
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Wade Sellers is an independent filmmaker in Columbia. He produced his first film within months after graduating from USC in media arts.
As the first media intern at the South Carolina Arts Commission, Sellers assisted with the Southeastern Media Institute where he later became an instructor. He became an in-demand lighting director and gaffer on commercials and corporate projects too and had shot three indie feature films and many shorts by the time he moved to New York City in 1999. His 35mm short film Gordon’s Ride was featured at the Independent Feature Film Market and was sold to iFilm and ShortsTV.
Sellers co-founded the non-profit Hybrid Films in 2002 which functioned as fiscal agent for multiple documentary projects for underserved filmmakers in the region. Hybrid Films’ largest accomplishment was the Beg and Grovel Film Festival, the first true independent film festival in Columbia.
As Sellers continued to produce and film independent projects for himself and other filmmakers from South Carolina to New York City, he formed Coal Powered Filmworks, his production company.
His first Southeastern Emmy Award nomination came with South Carolinians in World War 2, a project he was commissioned to direct for South Carolina ETV. After completion of that series, he continued to produce historical documentary work that took him to Japan, France, England, Germany and Austria to international acclaim. His work was broadcast through PBS and his show “Return to Normandy” served as the opening film for the 2017 Normandie International Film Festival in France.
Through his career, Sellers has focused on collaborating with local filmmakers and promoting independent filmmaking in South Carolina. In 2013 he founded the 2nd Act Film Project. As of 2024, 84 films have been created by S.C. filmmakers solely for screening at the 2nd Act Film Project.
He has supervised more than 25 interns from USC and Benedict College since 2008, lectured and taught in the media arts department of USC, and was named a distinguished alumnus from the USC School of Visual Arts and Design in 2020. He has served as the board president for The Jasper Project since 2019.
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The South Carolina Arts Awards presentation video is coming to YouTube & Facebook on Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 7 p.m. ET.
[Image description: Black background with a photo of Wade Sellers, a white man with brown hair, and the GAFTA statue's outline. The text says, “Wade Sellers, Artist Winner, S.C. Governor’s Award for the Arts.”]
