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Laura Poitras

Directing

Born February 2, 1964 · Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Biography

Laura Poitras is an Academy Award-winning American documentary film director and producer residing in Berlin. Poitras has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Citizenfour, about Edward Snowden. while My Country, My Country received a nomination in the same category in 2007. She won the 2013 George Polk Award for "national security reporting" related to the NSA disclosures. The NSA reporting by Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill, and Barton Gellmancontributed to the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service awarded jointly to The Guardian and The Washington Post. She is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, and one of the initial supporters of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Awards & recognition

  • Golden Lion · 2022
  • Academy AwardBest Documentary Feature Film · 2015
  • Carl von Ossietzky Medal · 2014
  • Medal Carl von Ossietzky · 2014
  • Pulitzer PrizePublic Service · 2014
Show all 14 awards →
  • Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize · 2014
  • EFF Award · 2013
  • George Polk Award · 2013
  • MacArthur Fellows Program · 2012
  • Anonymous Was A Woman Award · 2010
  • Guggenheim Fellowship · 2007
  • Marion Dönhoff Award
  • Academy AwardBest Documentary Feature Film · 2023 · nominated
  • Academy AwardBest Documentary Feature Film · 2007 · nominated

Filmography24 titles

How to Have an American Baby

2023Executive Producer

Citizenfour

2014as Self

Relative

2022Producer

All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone

2016as Self - Co-founder, The Intercept (archive footage)

Shooting the Mafia

2019Executive Producer

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

2022Camera Operator, Director, Producer

Crime + Punishment

2018Executive Producer

Cover-Up

2025Director, Editor, Producer

Meeting Snowden

2017as Self - Journalist (archive footage)

P.O.V.

1988Director, Director of Photography, Producer

The Panama Papers

2018Executive Producer

Risk

2016as Self (voice)

The Year of the Everlasting Storm

2021Director, Director of Photography, Editor, Producer

Our New President

2018Executive Producer

Strong Island

2017Executive Producer

The Daily Show

1996as Self

Project X

2016Director

The Proposal

2018Executive Producer

Hale County This Morning, This Evening

2018Executive Producer

XY Chelsea

2019Executive Producer

Ghosts of Sugar Land

2019Executive Producer

Keep the Lights On

2012Thanks

Easter Snap

2019Executive Producer

Landfall

2020Executive Producer