Paxton Winters was in the 2003 Los Angeles Film Festival, where his feature Crude won the IFP Target Filmmaking Award. The film also won the Special Jury Prize at the 2003 Seattle Film Festival. Winters previously directed the documentaries The Last Caravan on the Silk Road and Damning the Euphrates.

Co-written with Emre Mirza, Iraqi Freedom was selected as one of twelve scripts o participate in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab this year. The film is being produced by Phyllis Kaufman (executive produce, Crude).