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Matthew Heineman is an Academy Award-nominated, nine-time Emmy Award-winning, and two-time DGA Award-winning filmmaker. The Sundance Film Festival called Heineman "one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today," while Anne Thompson of IndieWire wrote that Heineman is a "respected and gifted filmmaker who combines gonzo fearlessness with empathetic sensitivity."
In 2019, he received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First Time Feature Film Director from the Directors Guild of America for his narrative debut, A Private War - making Heineman and Martin Scorsese the only filmmakers ever nominated for both narrative and documentary DGA Awards. A Private War stars Jamie Dornan, Tom Hollander, Stanley Tucci, and Oscar-nominee Rosamund Pike as legendary war reporter Marie Colvin. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to widespread critical acclaim before being released nationwide by Aviron Pictures. It was a New York Times Critics' Pick, and Variety hailed the film as "Heineman's astonishing narrative debut" and "an incredibly sophisticated, psychologically immersive film." A Private War also earned two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress and Best Original Song.
His latest film, American Symphony, is a portrait of Academy Award and Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste. While composing an original symphony for Carnegie Hall, Batiste receives 11 Grammy nominations and is at a career high. But this trajectory is upended when his life partner -- best-selling author Suleika Jaouad -- learns that her long dormant cancer has returned in this film about two artists at a crossroads. It premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival where it was lauded by both audiences and critics, and was subsequently acquired by Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground. Clayton Davis of Variety hailed the film as "quite possibly one of the best love stories seen on film in over two decades" while Daniel Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a celebration of art, resilience and the mutability of the human spirit." American Symphony was shortlisted for an Academy Award, won the PGA Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures, and has received over 40 nominations including the BAFTA Film Award, Critics Choice Award, and NAACP Image Award. The film is available to stream on Netflix.
Heineman previously directed and produced Retrograde, which offers a cinematic and historic window onto the end of America's twenty-year war in Afghanistan and the costs endured for those most intimately involved from rarely seen operational control rooms to the frontlines of battle to the chaotic Kabul airport during the final U.S. withdrawal. The feature documentary from National Geographic Films premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2022, where it received wide-spread critical acclaim. Retrograde was shortlisted for an Academy Award, nominated for a DGA and PGA Award, and was nominated for six Emmy awards, winning for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary, Outstanding Cinematography, and Outstanding Editing. It also received a Producing Award from DOC NYC, and was honored with the Edward R. Murrow Award for Feature Documentary. The Wrap commended the film as "a triumph of access and unbelievable bravery," while Salon called it "chilling" extolling that "Heineman has become famous for his cinema verité approach that avoids both interviews and voiceovers, but this film takes that signature style to an entirely new level of art." The Times proclaimed it "hair-raising" and that Heineman "creates some of the most beautiful images in documentary film-making today." Following the November 2022 theatrical release, Retrograde premiered on National Geographic Channel on December 8th, 2022 and is now available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
Prior to Retrograde, Heineman directed, produced, shot, and edited The First Wave, a feature documentary film with exclusive access inside one of New York City's hardest-hit hospital systems during the harrowing first four months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The First Wave received the International Documentary Association's prestigious Pare Lorentz Award, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and was nominated for seven Emmy awards, winning Best Documentary, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing. The film was a New York Times Critics' Pick hailed by The Hollywood Reporter as a "masterfully crafted film" and Variety as "a courageous and astonishing cinematic time capsule." Released by National Geographic Documentary Films and NEON, the film is available on Hulu.
Previously, Heineman directed Amazon's The Boy From Medellin, an astonishingly intimate portrait of international superstar J Balvin that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before being released by Amazon Studios. Additionally, Heineman co-directed with Matthew Hamachek the Emmy winning two-part documentary Tiger, which he also executive produced. The documentary, which was released by HBO in two parts in January 2021, offers a revealing look at the rise, fall, and epic comeback of global icon Tiger Woods.
Heineman directed and executive produced The Trade, a Showtime docu-series that chronicles a different topic each season, from the opioid crisis to human trafficking, through the eyes of those most affected. It was described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a thriller... like Traffic only current and real", while the New York Times said, "Heineman has shown an uncanny ability to gain access to hard-to-reach people and places." Both seasons of the show premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received overwhelming critical acclaim and awards recognition. It won Best Episodic Series at the 2018 IDA Awards for season one, as well as two News & Documentary Emmy Awards for season two, including Outstanding Direction for Heineman.
His documentary film City of Ghosts, which follows a group of citizen-journalists exposing the horrors of ISIS, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed worldwide by Amazon Studios before having its broadcast premiere on A&E. Heineman won his second Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Award from the DGA for the film- one of only three directors to win the prestigious honor twice. City of Ghosts also won the Courage Under Fire Award from the International Documentary Association "in recognition of conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of the truth" and was listed on over 20 critics year-end lists for Best Documentary of 2017. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA Award, PGA Award, IDA Award, and Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.
Cartel Land, which explores vigilantes taking on the Mexican drug cartels, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won three Primetime Emmy Awards, including Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and Best Cinematography. The film premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where Heineman won the Best Director Award and Special Jury Prize for Cinematography. Cartel Land was also awarded the Courage Under Fire Award, the DGA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary, and the George Polk Award in Journalism. The film was released theatrically nationwide by The Orchard and had its broadcast premiere on A&E.
He previously co-directed and produced the feature-length, Emmy-nominated documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescure American Healthcare; collaborated for two years on the Emmy-nominated HBO series, The Alzheimer's Project; and also directed and produced Our Time, his first documentary about what it's like to be young in America.
Heineman founded Our Time Projects, a New York based production company that produced some of Heineman's gripping and unprecedented films such as City of Ghosts and Retrograde, in 2009. Heineman, a 2005 graduate of Dartmouth College, is based in New York City.- Producer
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Ulrich Seidl was born on 24 November 1952 in Vienna, Austria. He is a producer and director, known for Rimini (2022), Paradise: Love (2012) and Goodnight Mommy (2014). He is married to Veronika Franz. They have two children.- Director
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Michael Francis Moore was born in Flint, Michigan on April 23, 1954, and was raised in its Davison suburb. He is the son of Helen Veronica (Wall), a secretary, and Francis Richard Moore, who worked on an auto assembly line. He has Irish, as well as English and Scottish, ancestry.
Moore studied journalism at the University of Michigan-Flint, and also pursued other hobbies such as gun shooting, for which he even won a competition. Michael began his journalistic career writing for the school newspaper "The Michigan Times," and after dropping out of college briefly worked as editor for "Mother Jones."
He then turned to filmmaking, and to earn the money for the budget of his first film Roger & Me (1989) he ran neighborhood bingo games. The success of this film launched his career as one of America's best-known and most controversial documentarians. He has produced a string of documentary films and TV series predominantly about the same subject: attacks on corrupt politicians and greedy business corporations. He landed his first big hit with Bowling for Columbine (2002) about the bad points of the right to bear arms in America, which earned him an Oscar and a big reputation. He then shook the world with his even bigger hit Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), making fun of President George W. Bush. This is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. Michael is known for having the guts to give his opinion in public, which not many people are courageous enough to do, and for that is respected by many.- Producer
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Robert Kenner has won an array of awards and garnered rave reviews for his documentary work on a wide range of social and environmental issues. His latest film Command and Control opened theatrically to critical acclaim. His Academy Award-nominated film Food, Inc. had a monumental impact on how our food is regulated and is one of the highest grossing theatrical documentaries of all time. Kenner's rich body of work includes Merchants of Doubt which has been screened by Senators and US Attorneys General to influence climate policy, the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning Two Days in October, When Strangers Click, and The Road to Memphis for Martin Scorsese's series The Blues. Kenner has directed a number of specials for American Experience, HBO and National Geographic as well as award-winning commercials and corporate videos for clients including eBay, Hallmark and Hewlett Packard.- Director
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Gabe Polsky is known for Red Army (2014), Butcher's Crossing (2022) and In Search of Greatness (2018).- Director
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Yann Arthus-Bertrand was born on 13 March 1946 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for Human (2015), Woman (2019) and Legacy, notre héritage (2021).- Director
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Mark Cousins was born on 3 May 1965 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. He is a director and writer, known for The First Movie (2009), The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018) and What Is This Film Called Love? (2012).- Producer
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Bryan Fogel is an American film director, producer, author, playwright, speaker and human rights activist, best known for the 2017 documentary Icarus, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards in 2018.
The New York Times described Fogel's film Icarus as "Illuminating" and Variety magazine called it a "A Game Changing Documentary." Icarus premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award "The Orwell Award" and the first ever "Audience Choice" Award of Sundance Film Festival London. The film was acquired in a historic $5 million sale by Netflix and launched globally on August 4, 2017 and won its first Feature Documentary Oscar with Icarus. The evidence brought forward in Icarus through Russian whistle-blower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, was instrumental in the Olympic Committee's banning of Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
Icarus was also nominated for the Best Documentary Feature at the 71st BAFTAs, and Fogel was nominated for outstanding directorial achievement at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards, and three 2018 Primetime Emmy Awards for writing, directing and best documentary special. Icarus also received the 2018 Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Journalism.
Fogel most recently directed and produced the 2020 feature documentary film The Dissident that follows the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia's effort to control international dissent. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2020 and was released on December 18, 2020, by Briarcliff Entertainment. Fogel's screenplay for The Dissident, won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay award at the 73rd Writers Guild of America Awards in 2020 and received his second nomination for "Best Documentary" at the (BAFTA) British Academy Film Awards in 2020.
Fogel was named by Fast Company: "The Most Creative People in Business 2021" among 72 individuals for his film The Dissident.
He resides in Los Angeles, CA.- Director
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Pemberton cut his teeth directing music videos and music television, but got his first taste of documentary when, at 24-years-old, he was asked to direct a film documenting a collaboration between the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the re-uniting legendary Kiwi group Spitz Enz. By the early 2000s, Pemberton had set up a company specializing in documentary production with fellow filmmakers Megan Jones and Pietra Brettkelly. From then on, he has worked on many other award-winning documentaries including Love, Speed and Loss (best documentary, directing, and editing at the NZ Screen Awards), The Nuclear Comeback, which The Guardian newspaper said, "like the best documentaries, it is engaging, nuanced and avoids preaching its cause", International Emmy-nominated The Golden Hour, Chasing Great, which went on to become the highest grossing New Zealand documentary of all time. He executive-produced quirky hit documentary Tickled and directed his first interactive documentary, I Spy, about the transnational Five Eyes surveillance network. I Spy received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Original Interactive Production. His current feature documentary Capital in the Twenty-First Century, is his most ambitious project yet. Based on the best-selling book of the same name by acclaimed French economist Thomas Piketty, the film explores the journey of wealth and power across time, showing how 'capital' has steered our world while ultimately shedding light on our future.- Director
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Simon Lereng Wilmont was born in 1975. He is a director and cinematographer, known for The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017), A House Made of Splinters (2022) and Above the Ground, Beneath the Sky (2008).- Producer
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Laura Poitras was born on 2 February 1964 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is a producer and director, known for Citizenfour (2014), The Oath (2010) and My Country, My Country (2006).- Director
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Joshua Oppenheimer was born on 23 September 1974 in Texas, USA. He is a director and producer, known for The Act of Killing (2012), The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase (1998) and The Look of Silence (2014).- Director
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Kevin Macdonald was born on 28 October 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Last King of Scotland (2006), The Mauritanian (2021) and How I Live Now (2013). He has been married to Tatiana Macdonald since 2 July 1999. They have three children.- Producer
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Sara Dosa is an award-winning nonfiction filmmaker whose work centers on the human relationship with non-human nature. For her directing work, Dosa has won a Peabody and the Directors' Guild of America Awards, among others, and has been nominated for an Oscar, BAFTA and Independent Spirit Award. Her work has been shown at festivals worldwide including Sundance, SXSW, New Directors/New Films, CPH:DOX and Visions du Réel, among others, and has screened in partnership with museums such as the MOMA, BAMPFA and The Louvre.
Most recently, Dosa directed the Academy Award nominated "Fire of Love," about French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. "Fire of Love" premiered on Opening Night of Sundance 2022 where it won the Jonathan Oppenheimer Editing Award and was acquired by National Geographic Films. "Fire of Love" was released theatrically in 2022 and went on to be nominated for over 40 awards worldwide, winning the DGA Outstanding Direction in a Documentary Film, the Critics' Choice Award for Best Archival Documentary, IDA's Best Writing and Best Cinematography, Cinema Eye Honors for Best Score, Best Editing and Best Visual Design, among others. Additional directing titles include the 2015 Indie-Spirited Award nominated "The Last Season" a verité portrait of two Oregon veterans turned wild mushroom hunters; and the 2019 Golden Gate Award-winning "The Seer & The Unseen," a fabulist portrait of and Icelandic woman in communication with spirits of nature.
Dosa's producing credits include the Peabody winning "Audrie & Daisy" (Sundance / Netflix 2016) and the Peabody and Emmy-nominated "Survivors" (IDFA / POV 2018). Dosa co-produced the Academy Award-nominated "The Edge of Democracy" (Sundance / Netflix 2019) as well as "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" (Sundance / Paramount 2017).
In 2018, Dosa was named to the inaugural class of DOCNYC's "40 under 40" and was also inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture's Documentary Branch. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a double major in sociology and anthropology, and has a joint masters in cultural anthropology and international development studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dosa lives and works in California.- Director
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David Darg is an Oscar nominated director and co-founder of RYOT Media and Arabia+. Named one of Esquire Magazine's "2012 Americans of the Year" and Details Magazine's "Hollywood Mavericks," David spent 15 years as a first responder and front line contributor for Reuters, the BBC and CNN, covering some of the world's largest natural disasters and wars. David grew up in the Middle East and England. After receiving his degree in Philosophy from Oxford University, he moved to Africa to work in the non-profit sector. His films have appeared on major networks including HBO and HULU and he has directed commercial work for some of the largest brands including Uber, Apple and Verizon.- Director
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Feras Fayyad was born on September 20th in a small village 60 km from Aleppo. This village was part of the Kingdom of Ebla, where cuneiform was discovered. The village had a unique language for the inhabitants of that region, in addition to a theater and musical pieces dating back to the third millennium BC. Fayyad grew up between his small village, surrounded by this life full of history and fantasy, and Aleppo and Damascus. Fayyad was raised by the women of his extended family.
Feras Fayyad is the first Syrian director to be nominated for the Academy Award and by the Directors Guild of America. Fayyad is a two-time Oscar nominee and Emmy award-winning filmmaker. Fayyad is best known for his film, LAST MEN IN ALEPPO, which made him the first Syrian director to be nominated for an Academy award, and THE CAVE, which earned him his second nomination for the 2020 academy award. He is also a two-time winner of the Danish Academy Award (the Danish Oscar) and the first non-Danish director to receive the prestigious Director talented award for his work in THE CAVE. Fayyad was named one of GOOD Magazine's 100 creative global change-makers of 2014. G. Allen Johnson of San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Fayyad is a humanitarian, and his approach in "The Cave" demonstrates that."
His last documentary film, THE CAVE, described by Variety as MIRACULOUS, follows managing physician Dr. Amani Ballour and her colleagues as they contend with daily bombardments, chronic supply shortages and the ever-present threat of chemical attacks. The Cave paints a stirring portrait of courage, resilience and female solidarity. Premiering at the 2019 TIFF, The Cave won People's Choice Award, best writing from the International Documentary Association, and Producing Award from Cinema Eyes Honer, alongside 16 other awards around the world. THE CAVE was also nominated for 5 Critics Choice Awards, Directors Guild of America, Producer Guild of America, and nominated for 2020 Academy Award. THE CAVE was distributed worldwide by National Geographic.
LAST MEN IN ALEPPO, described by THE GUARDIAN as a masterpiece, follows members of the volunteer group, White Helmets, who offers aid to the wounded during the Syrian Civil War. LAST MEN IN ALEPPO was nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won an Emmy Award, making Fayyad the first Syrian director to be nominated for an Academy Award. The film premiered in the World Documentary Competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where Fayyad won The Grand Jury prize. LAST MEN IN ALEPPO was also awarded the Courage Under Fire Award from International Documentary Association and the Peabody Award. The film was released theatrically nationwide by The Grasshopper and had its broadcast premiere on POV/PBS in January 2017.
Previously, Fayyad produced, co-wrote and edited the award-winning short ONE DAY IN ALEPPO with paint a several human story in 24 min about the orderly people of Aleppo who try to live their ordinary life. Fayyad directed a feature-length documentary MY ESCAPE - the film focuses on the largest refugee crisis since World War II, through the eyes of two boys out of the many thousands of children who are fleeing alone. The film had its broadcast premiere on BBC in 2015- Producer
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Jimmy Chin was born on 12 October 1973 in Mankato, Minnesota, USA. He is a producer and director, known for The Rescue (2021), Nyad (2023) and Free Solo (2018).- Producer
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Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi was born on 30 December 1978 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a producer and director, known for The Rescue (2021), Free Solo (2018) and Meru (2015). She has been married to Jimmy Chin since 26 May 2013. They have two children.- Producer
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Academy Award, eight-time Emmy nominated, and Peabody, DGA, and Sundance winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger has been a pioneering force in nonfiction filmmaking for over three decades. In a recent Bloomberg profile, Berlinger was described as a "true crime hit factory" for Netflix, whose work has "redefined crime documentaries as a vehicle for social justice." The article quoted Adam Del Deo, VP for original documentary series at Netflix: "He's the gold standard in true crime. The moral compass that he has, the sense of responsibility he has for victims and for getting the story right and shining a light on it, that is something that is very unique." Berlinger is the creator of landmark documentaries such as Sundance winner BROTHER'S KEEPER, which influenced a generation of documentarians and the PARADISE LOST Trilogy, which helped lead to the release of the wrongfully-convicted West Memphis Three, and METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER, a film that redefined the rockumentary genre. CRUDE, which examined the dire issue of oil pollution in the ancestral homeland of thousands of Ecuadorians in the Amazon Rainforest, won 22 human rights, environmental and film festival awards and triggered a high profile First Amendment battle with the Chevron Corporation. Eight of Berlinger's films, including his Emmy-nominated 2012 Paul Simon documentary, UNDER AFRICAN SKIES, have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and have earned three Grand Jury Prize nominations. He has also received multiple awards from the Directors Guild of America, the National Board of Review, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Critics Choice awards.
Berlinger holds a streak of chart-topping series on Netflix, attracting enormous audiences and igniting global conversation by becoming the first filmmaker to simultaneously cover the same subject in scripted and unscripted forms with CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER: THE TED BUNDY TAPES and EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL, AND VILE, which starred Zac Efron, Lilly Collins, and John Malkovich and sold to Netflix in a Sundance bidding war for almost $10 million. The recently released film GHISLAINE MAXWELL: FILTHY RICH and doc series BERNIE MADOFF: THE MONSTER OF WALL STREET also both debuted as the #1 documentaries upon their release.- Producer
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Alex Gibney was born on 23 October 1953 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) and Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (2015). He has been married to Anne Gibney since 14 August 1982. They have three children.- Director
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Documentary film director. Born on July 19, 1961 in Leningrad. Since 1978 he worked at the Leningrad studio of Documentaries as assistant cameraman, assistant director and editor. In 1988 he finished the Higher Courses of Film Writers and Directors in Moscow. Laureate of the "Triumph" Prize, Laureate of the RF State Award and the "Nika" prize. Award-winner of numerous national and international film forums. He started his own production company, Kossakovsky Film Production, based in San Petersburg, to create a cinema with a strong focus in poetics and reality.- Director
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Chris Smith was born in 1970. He is known for Tiger King (2020), Fyre (2019) and Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017).- Producer
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Charles Ferguson was born on 24 March 1955 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Inside Job (2010), No End in Sight (2007) and Watergate (2018).- Director
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Michael Apted was born on 10 February 1941 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Amazing Grace (2006), Rome (2005) and Gorillas in the Mist (1988). He was married to Paige Simpson, Dana Stevens and Jo Apted. He died on 7 January 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Producer
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Asif Kapadia is an Academy Award, Grammy and four time BAFTA winning Producer / Director / Writer who works across both film and television. Kapadia is known for his emotional engaging, visually striking, genre breaking films exploring 'outsiders' characters living in extreme circumstances, fighting against a corrupt or broken system and the price of fame. He has worked in drama and documentaries, Kapadia is best known for his trilogy of narratively driven, archive constructed documentaries SENNA, AMY & DIEGO MARADONA.
His debut feature 'THE WARRIOR' was nominated for three Bafta awards, winning Best British Film and Best Debut Film. His fourth feature 'SENNA', the story of the Brazilian motor racing legend Ayrton Senna, was nominated for three Bafta awards, winning Best Documentary and Best Editing. It went on to break UK box office records to become the highest grossing British Documentary of all time. 'AMY', about singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse has now overtaken 'SENNA' to become the most successful British Documentary of all time, winning numerous awards including the Academy Award, BAFTA, European Film Award and a Grammy for Best Documentary.
Born in Hackney, London in 1972, Kapadia studied filmmaking at the Royal College of Art where he first gained recognition with his short film THE SHEEP THIEF (1997) shot in Rajasthan, India, the film won many international awards including one in the Cinefondation section of the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the European Film Festival in Brest.
Kapadia's distinct visual style developed with his debut feature THE WARRIOR (Film4, 2001), shot in the deserts of Rajasthan and the snow capped Himalaya. The Warrior was championed in the British Press as 'epic' and 'stunning' (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian) and in 2003 was nominated for three BAFTA awards, winning two for Outstanding British Film of the Year and The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a Director in their First Feature, as well as being nominated for Best Film Not in the English Language. The Warrior won the prestigious Sutherland Award at the London Film Festival, the Evening Standard British Film Award for the Most Promising Newcomer and the Douglas Hickox Award at the BIFAs for Best Debut Film.
FAR NORTH (2007), Starring Michael Yeoh and Sean Bean premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Based on a short story by writer Sara Maitland. Kapadia used the epic and brutal Arctic landscape to show what desperation and loneliness can drive people to do.
Kapadia's feature documentary SENNA (Universal Pictures / Working Title, 2011), the thrilling story and emotional story of the Brazilian motor-racing legend Ayrton Senna, constructed entirely from archive, was a groundbreaking feature documentary, the film was a break out hit at the international box office, grossing over $15m worldwide. SENNA was Nominated for three BAFTA awards, winning Best Documentary and Best Editing, as well as being nominated for Best British Film. SENNA broke records at the cinema and on DVD & Bluray in the UK. The film has won awards around the world including the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Documentary at the London Critics Circle, the BIFA award for Best Documentary, the Audience Award for Best International Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was nominated by the Producers Guild of America for the Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture Award 2012.
AMY (Universal Music, 2015), world premiered in Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival and tells the story of Amy Winehouse in her own words. The film was an international box office hit grossing over $20m, it is the highest grossing UK documentary of all time. AMY won the Academy Award for Feature Documentary, the BAFTA for Best Documentary, was nominated for Outstanding British Film. Kapadia was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for AMY by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) (Documentaries & TV).
Kapadia's third feature documentary Diego Maradona, about the controversial genius, Argentinian footballer Diego Armando Maradona world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, the film was Nominated for a BAFTA for Best Documentary and completed his epic trilogy on the price of fame,
Kapadia directed two episodes of Mindhunter (Netflix) for David Fincher.
in 2021 Kapadia Executive Produced and Series Directed the music series 1971: 'The year that music changed everything' and he Directed & Executive Produced the series THE ME YOU CAN'T SEE with Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry focusing on mental health and well being, both for AppleTV+.
Kapadia was an Executive Producer of the landmark BBC ONE series Stephen: The Murder That Changed A Nation.
THE ODYSSEY (2012, Film4, BBC, LOCOG) Kapadia was commissioned to direct an official film for the London Cultural Olympiad, his film traces the journey from 2005 when London won the right to host the Olympic Games to the eve of the games in 2012. The film uses the voices of Londoners, archive, classic Olympic footage and stunning aerial photography of London to show how sport is essential, how it can inspire, provide unforgettable moments of beauty, purity and the sublime.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (2013, Reprieve, Guardian films) More than 100 hunger-strikers in Guantánamo Bay protest as they continue to be held without charge, some for over a decade. A leaked document sets out the military instructions, or standard operating procedure, for force-feeding detainees. In this graphic four-minute film made by Human Rights organisation Reprieve and director Asif Kapadia, US actor and rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), experiences the procedure. SOP was released on The Guardian newspaper's website, the film went viral and was picked up by every major news source around the globe, picking up more than 10million views in a matter of days.
Kapadia directed the award winning Burberry commercial, "A Tale of Thomas Burberry", featuring an all-star cast of Domhnall Gleeson, Sienna Miller, Dominic West and Lily James and written by Academy Award nominee Matt Charman. Comprising of a three-minute cinematic trailer, the film is inspired by Thomas Burberry's life and achievements, reimagining key events that have shaped the company's history and values.- Director
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Steve James was born in Hampton, Virginia, USA. He has been based in Chicago, Illinois, USA for his entire career. He is known for the documentary films Hoop Dreams (1994), Stevie (2002), The Interrupters (2011), Life Itself (2014) and Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016). His documentary series works include America to Me (2018), City So Real (2020) and most recently, The Luckiest Guy in the World (2023).- Director
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Kirby Dick is a two time Emmy-award winning and two-time Academy award-nominated documentary film director. His most recent film, The Hunting Ground (2015), a monumental exposé about sexual assault on college campuses, premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, was released by Radius/The Weinstein Company and CNN, is the 2016 recipient of the Producer Guild of America's Stanley Kramer award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. His previous film, The Invisible War (2012), a groundbreaking investigation into the epidemic of rape within the US military, won two Emmy Awards for Best Documentary and Outstanding Investigative Journalism, the 2012 Independent Spirit Award 2012 for Best Documentary, a Peabody Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He also directed Twist of Faith (2004), the story of a man confronting the trauma of his past sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, which was also nominated for an Academy Award. Other films include Outrage (2009), nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006), a breakthrough investigation of the MPAA's secretive film ratings system, and Derrida (2002), a complex portrait of the world-renowned French philosopher Jacques Derrida. He is the 2012 recipient of the Nestor Almendros Prize for Courage and Filmmaking and the 2013 Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize.- Director
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Adam Curtis was born on 26 May 1955 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Power of Nightmares (2004), Pandora's Box (1992) and HyperNormalisation (2016).- Producer
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Amy Berg was born in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is known for Deliver Us from Evil (2006), West of Memphis (2012) and Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015).- Director
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Born in 1930, Wiseman is a Cambridge, Massachusetts resident and member of the Massachusetts Bar Association who turned to filmmaking in 1967, after years as an instructor and/or researcher at Boston University, Brandeis University, and Harvard. In 1970 he founded Zipporah Films, Inc., which continues to distribute his documentaries. Wiseman has also written and lectured widely on law enforcement issues.- Director
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With "Armadillo" (2010) Danish director Janus Metz (born 1974) stepped firmly into the international spotlight winning the Grand Prix of the Cannes film festival 's Critic's week. His film about a group of Danish soldiers at the front line in Afghanistan spurred heated debate, not only about the war but also about the boundaries between fiction and documentary filmmaking. With his debut narrative feature "Borg/McEnroe" (2017), Metz made an even bigger splash opening the Toronto Film Festival. Metz has also directed an episode of the acclaimed TV.series "True Detective" as well as 3 episodes of the series "ZerZeroZero". Metz holds a master degree in visual anthropology and his body of work also include shorts, commercials, art films and music videos.- Director
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Agnès Varda was born on 30 May 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on 29 March 2019 in Paris, France.- Producer
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Brett Morgen was born on 11 October 1968 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Jane (2017), Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015) and The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002). He has been married to Debra Eisenstadt since 2001.- Producer
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Liz Garbus was born on 11 April 1970 in the USA. She is a producer and director, known for What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015), The Farm: Angola, USA (1998) and Becoming Cousteau (2021). She is married to Dan Cogan. They have two children.- Director
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Sophie Elwin-Harris is known for Drain the Oceans (2018), Surviving the Mount St. Helens Disaster (2020) and Horizon (1964).- Producer
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Gabriela Cowperthwaite is known for Our Friend (2019) and Blackfish (2013).- Director
- Cinematographer
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Phie Ambo (born 1973) was trained at the National Film School of Denmark, graduating as a documentary film director in 2003. Famous for her feature length documentary films true to the tradition of poetic, personal and cinematic language, Ambo deals with essential topics such as family relations, love, creative processes and artificial life.
Phie Ambo has directed a number of award-winning films for the cinema, including major works such as Family (2001), Gambler (2005) and Mechanical Love (2007).
In recent years Ambo has been especially interested in pursuing work of a more thematic nature, and this in the form of a trilogy focusing on the relation between science and human existence. In Mechanical Love (2007) which traveled widely on the international festival circuit, Ambo explored the relationship between human beings and robots and the nature of emotion itself. Released in 2012, Free the Mind deals with the impact that thoughts have on both the mind and the body. The last film in the trilogy, Ripples at the Shore, is about consciousness and is scheduled for release in 2014.- Director
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Alexandre O. Philippe is known for 78/52 (2017), Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist (2019) and You Can Call Me Bill (2023).- Director
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Nick Broomfield was born on 30 January 1948 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Ghosts (2006), Battle for Haditha (2007) and Aileen Wuornos: Selling of a Serial Killer (1992).