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ABOUT LAURA NIX

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SHORT BIO

Laura Nix is a director, writer, and producer working in non-fiction and fiction. Her short film, WALK RUN CHA-CHA, was nominated for a 2020 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject, and the New York Times series, FROM HERE TO HOME, in which the film appears, was nominated for a 2020 News and Documentary Emmy. Her feature documentary, INVENTING TOMORROW, won a 2019 Peabody Award. Laura also directed the feature documentaries THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING, THE LIGHT IN HER EYES and WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT: THE STORY OF HEDWIG, as well as the award-winning fiction feature THE POLITICS OF FUR. She was named a 2018 Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker and was awarded the Sundance Institute/Discovery Impact Fellowship in 2017. Laura has a BA in History from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and an MFA in Visual Studies from University of California San Diego. Raised in New York state and based in Los Angeles, she is a film expert for the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she serves on the Executive Committee of the Documentary Branch.

full bio

Laura Nix is a director, writer and producer working in non-fiction and fiction. Her short film, WALK RUN CHA-CHA, was nominated for a 2020 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject after its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and winning Best Short at Viet Film Fest. The New York Times series, FROM HERE TO HOME, in which the film appears, was also nominated for a 2020 News and Documentary Emmy in the category of Outstanding New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture. The film is currently streaming on New York Times Op-Docs.

 

Her feature documentary INVENTING TOMORROW, about teenagers from around the globe tackling environmental issues through science, premiered in the US Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, followed by screenings at numerous film festivals worldwide and earning multiple awards including a 2019 Peabody Award and the Grand Jury Prize at Seattle International Film Festival.

In 2018 she was also named a Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker,  a prestigious award given annually to five experienced women filmmakers based in the United States who have each been acknowledged for their extraordinary careers in the industry.

 

Awarded the 2017 Sundance Institute/Discovery Impact Fellowship, Nix also directed THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING, a comedy about activism and climate change that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014 and the Berlinale 2015 and has gone on to play in over 85 film festivals internationally. It was theatrically released in North America by the Orchard, and appeared theatrically and on television internationally. Previously she directed the documentary THE LIGHT IN HER EYES, about a Syrian Qur’an school for women, which premiered at IDFA in 2011, was broadcast on the PBS series POV as well as internationally on Al-Jazeera Middle East and others, and toured the world with Sundance's Film Forward. Nix was also a writer on the Emmy nominated documentary CALIFORNIA STATE OF MIND: THE LEGACY OF PAT BROWN.

 

Nix wrote and directed the comedic narrative feature THE POLITICS OF FUR, which played in over 70 film festivals internationally and won numerous awards, including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at Outfest Los Angeles 2002 and Best Feature at Boston Underground 2003. She has directed music videos for several artists including Sweaters, Rajae el Mouhandiz, and the classical Vienna-based ensemble Vivante.

 

In 2001, Nix co-founded the production company Automat Pictures, where she produced and/or directed over 100 presentations, including the feature documentary WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT: THE STORY OF HEDWIG, which played in over a dozen film festivals in the U.S. and worldwide. Previously she was a member of Oscar-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s production company Telling Pictures, where she was Associate Producer on THE CELLULOID CLOSET.

 

Nix’s nonfiction television work has appeared on HBO, PBS, Arte, ZDF, CBC, NHK, Canal +, IFC, New York Times Op-Docs, Planet Green, and the History Channel. She was a MacDowell Colony Fellow in 2006 and a Film Independent and IFP fellow in 2011. She has served as an adviser to the Hot Docs Blue Ice Fund and East Africa’s Docubox, is currently a film expert for the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase, and is a member of the documentary branch of the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, where she serves on the Executive Committee of the Documentary Branch.


Nix's work has received support from the Bertha Foundation, BritDoc, Cal Humanities, Chicken and Egg Pictures, COBO Fund, the Danish Film Institute, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Kendeda Foundation, the Simons Foundation, and the Sundance Documentary Fund. She has a BA in History from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and an MFA in Visual Studies from University of California San Diego. Nix is the owner of Felt Films, a production company based in Los Angeles that produces non-fiction and fiction content, and she is repped for commercials and branded content by Majority Film in Los Angeles.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

2020 - Academy Award® Nominee - Best Documentary Short Subject for WALK RUN CHA-CHA

2020 - Nominee – News and Documentary Emmy, Outstanding New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture -
 

The New York Times series FROM HERE TO HOME including WALK RUN CHA-CHA

 

2020 - Winner – Nami (Earth) Award Best Documentary Short - Home Is Distant Shores Film Festival for WALK RUN CHA-CHA

 

2019 -  Peabody Award for Documentary Film for INVENTING TOMORROW

 

2019 - Winner – Grand Jury Trống Đồng Award for Best Short - Viet Film Fest  for  WALK RUN CHA-CHA

 

2019 - Jason D. Mak Award for Social Justice, DisOrient Film Festival for INVENTING TOMORROW

 

2019 - Special Jury Selection, Jackson Wild Summit  for INVENTING TOMORROW

 

2018 - Grand Jury Prize, Documentary Competition, Seattle International Film Festival for INVENTING TOMORROW

 

2018 - Green Spark Award - American Conservation Film Festival for INVENTING TOMORROW

 

2018 - Honorable Mention, Nashville Film Festival for INVENTING TOMORROW

 

2018 - Film of the Year, MôTif Film Festival for INVENTING TOMORROW

 

2018 - Member Documentary Branch, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences

 

2018 - Best Documentary Film, Ellensburg Film Festival for INVENTING TOMORROW

 

2018 - Chicken and Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker Award
 

2018 - Student Jury Award, InScience International Science Film Festival for INVENTING TOMORROW


2017 - Sundance Institute / Discovery Fellowship


2015 - 2nd Place, Panorama Audience Award - Berlinale for THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING


2011 - Fellow - Sundance Film Forward


2011 - Fellow - IFP


2011 - Independent Feature Project


2006 - Fellow - Macdowell Colony


2003 - Special Jury Prize, Best First Film, Gay + Lesbian Film Fest Miami for THE POLITICS OF FUR


2003 - Audience Award - Turin International Gay + Lesbian Film Festival for THE POLITICS OF FUR 


2003 - Best Feature - Boston Underground Film Festival for THE POLITICS OF FUR


2003 - Rainbow Award - Honolulu Gay + Lesbian Film Festival for THE POLITICS OF FUR


2002 - Grand Jury Prize, Best US Narrative Film - Outfest for THE POLITICS OF FUR 

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