Karim Amer | |
---|---|
Born | Egypt | 10 November 1983
Alma mater | New York University |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 2011–present |
Spouse | Jehane Noujaim |
Karim Amer (born November 10, 1983) is an Egyptian-American film producer and director. He worked on The Square (2013) and The Great Hack (2019); [1] the former was the first Egyptian film to earn an Academy Award nomination and went on to win three Emmy Awards, while the latter got nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA Award. [2] [3] In 2020, he produced and directed The Vow , an HBO documentary series about the self-improvement group, NXIVM. In 2022, he produced and directed Flight/Risk for Amazon Studios, revolving around whistleblowers at Boeing.
Amer and filmmaking partner Jehane Noujaim [4] met whilst she was filming The Square, [5] which he went on to co-produce with her. That film is about the Egyptian Crisis up until 2013, starting with the Egyptian revolution of 2011 at Tahrir Square. The film went on to win the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival. It ultimately won three Emmy Awards and was the first Egyptian film to get nominated for an Academy Award. [6] [7]
Initially, Amer and Noujaim meant out to make a documentary revolving around the Sony Pictures hack, however the film evolved and shifted course as they started looking at how people's minds have been hacked and changed, which led to The Great Hack about the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival and went on to get nominated at the BAFTA and Emmy Awards, and won an award at the Cinema Eye Honors. [8] [9] [10] [11] [4] [12] Additionally, Amer developed Persuasion Machines, a project exploring virtual reality at the Sundance Film Festival [13]
In 2017, Amer teamed up with Angelina Jolie to produce Academy Award-nominated film The Breadwinner . In 2019, Amer also produced the Golden Globe-winning series Ramy on Hulu. [14] The series went on to gain critical acclaim and was described as "an insightful and hilarious glimpse into the life of a Muslim American family." [15] In the same year, Amer was an executive producer on the 2019 HBO documentary film Revolution Rent , which follows Andy Señor Jr. to Cuba as he stages a production of Jonathan Larson’s Rent , which marked the first American company of a Broadway musical there in more than half a century. [16]
Amer directed the first season of The Vow , a documentary series revolving around NXIVM and its leader Keith Raniere for HBO. [17] [18] The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and The Los Angeles Times listed The Vow as one of the best series of 2020. [19] [20] [21]
In 2021, Amer produced the narrative film You Resemble Me , which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The film was written and directed by his sister, Dina Amer. [22] It won the Audience Award at the Red Sea International Film Festival. [23] It also won an unprecedented four awards at REC Tarragona, including the CineClub Jury Prize, the Young Jury Prize and the Audience Award. [24]
In 2022, Amer directed alongside Fisher Stevens, The Lincoln Project focusing on the scandal-ridden organization of the same name for Showtime. [25]
In 2023, Amer directed and produced Defiant revolving around the Russian invasion of Ukraine, focusing on Dmytro Kuleba and others fighting Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, [26] which will have its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023. [27]
Amer and Noujaim are developing a TV series "aimed at challenging perceptions of the Arab world as portrayed by such shows as Homeland and Tyrant". [28] In addition to his 2022 Amazon Prime Video documentary Flight/Risk , Amer is set to produce a limited series also about Boeing’s controversial 737 Max planes. The untitled project, which is now in early development at Amazon Studios, hails from Oscar-winning screenwriter Chris Terrio and is expected to star Jeremy Strong, who will headline and executive produce as well. [29]
Year | Title | Director | Producer |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Rafea: Solar Mama | No | Co-producer |
2013 | The Square | No | Yes |
2017 | The Breadwinner | No | Yes |
2019 | The Great Hack | Yes | Yes |
2019 | Revolution Rent | No | Executive |
2021 | You Resemble Me | No | Yes |
2022 | Flight/Risk | Yes | Yes |
2023 | Handle with Extreme Care | No | Yes |
2023 | Defiant | Yes | Yes |
Year(s) | Title | Director | Producer |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | Ramy | No | Co-executive producer |
2020-22 | The Vow | Yes | Executive |
2022 | The Lincoln Project | Yes | Executive |
Year | Award | Result |
---|---|---|
2013 | Sundance Film Festival - Audience Award for The Square | Won |
2013 | Toronto Film Festival - Audience Award for The Square | Won |
2013 | International Documentary Association - Best Feature for The Square | Won |
2013 | International Documentary Association - Humanitas Award for The Square | Nominated |
2013 | Dubai International Film Festival - Best Documentary Film for The Square | Won |
2014 | Academy Awards - Best Documentary Feature for The Square | Nominated |
2014 | Film Independent Spirit Awards - Best Documentary for The Square | Nominated |
2014 | Cinema Eye Honors - Outstanding Achievement in Production for The Square | Nominated |
2014 | Primetime Emmy Awards - Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for The Square | Won |
2018 | Academy Awards - Best Animated Feature for The Breadwinner | Nominated |
2019 | International Documentary Association - Creative Recognition Award: Best Writing for The Great Hack | Won |
2020 | BAFTA Awards - Best Documentary for The Great Hack | Nominated |
2020 | Primetime Emmy Awards - Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special for The Great Hack | Nominated |
2022 | Kerala International Film Festival - Golden Crow Pheasant for You Resemble Me | Nominated |
Jehane Noujaim is an American documentary film director best known for her films Control Room, Startup.com, Pangea Day and The Square. She has co-directed The Great Hack and The Vow with Karim Amer.
Bonnie Piesse is an Australian actress and singer. Her breakthrough role was playing a trapeze artist in the Australian children's television series High Flyers at the age of 15. After this she was scouted by George Lucas to play a young Beru Lars in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), a role she reprised in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022). She also had recurring roles on Blue Heelers, Horace and Tina, Stingers, and Last Man Standing.
Cecilia Peck is an American film producer, director and actress. She is the younger of two children of actor Gregory Peck and his second wife Veronique Passani.
Elizabeth Freya Garbus is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable documentaries Garbus has made are The Farm: Angola, USA,Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,Bobby Fischer Against the World,Love, Marilyn,What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Becoming Cousteau. She is co-founder and co-director of the New York City-based documentary film production company Story Syndicate.
Sarah Edmondson is a Canadian actress and podcaster. She is known for supporting roles on Hallmark Channel, and as a voice actress, most notably in Geronimo Stilton and as Lina in the Bratz movies.
Andrew Rossi is an American filmmaker, known for directing and writing The Andy Warhol Diaries (2022).
Mike Lerner is a film director and producer. He has directed Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (2013), and Klarsfeld (2022). He has produced multiple documentary films and series including Hell and Back Again (2011), Rafea: Solar Mama (2012), The Square (2013), The Departure (2017), The Great Hack (2019), The Kleptocrats (2018), The Vow (2020–22), The Meaning of Hitler (2020), F*ck this Job (2021), Flight/Risk (2022), and Defiant (2023).
The Square is a 2013 Egyptian-American documentary film by Jehane Noujaim, which depicts the Egyptian Crisis until 2013, starting with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 at Tahrir Square. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards. It also won three Emmy Awards at the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, out of four for which it was nominated.
HBO Documentary Films is an American production and distribution company, a division of the cable television network HBO that produces non-fiction feature films and miniseries.
Matthew Heineman is an American documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. His inspiration and fascination with American history led him to early success with the documentary film Cartel Land, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and won three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Julie Goldman is an American film producer and executive producer. She founded Motto Pictures in 2009. She is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer and executive producer of documentary feature films and series.
Victor Buhler is an American television and film director.
The 2019 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 24 to February 3, 2019. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 28, 2018.
Geralyn White Dreyfous is an American film producer. She has produced multiple documentary and narrative films focusing on social justice issues including The Invisible War (2012), The Square (2013), The Hunting Ground (2015), Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018), The Great Hack (2019), and On the Record (2020). Dreyfous has been nominated for Primetime Emmy awards.
The Great Hack is a 2019 documentary film about the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, produced and directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, both previous documentary Academy Award nominees. The film's music was composed by Emmy-nominated film composer Gil Talmi. The Great Hack premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in the Documentary Premieres section and was released by Netflix on July 24, 2019.
The Vow is an American true crime documentary series directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer that revolves around the cult NXIVM and its leader Keith Raniere. The NXIVM documentary series premiered on August 23, 2020, on HBO.
Artemis Rising Foundation is a nonprofit organization and film production and television production company, founded by Regina K. Scully.
Elizabeth Woodward is an American film producer and founder of WILLA. She has produced On The Divide (2021), You Resemble Me (2021), and Another Body (2023).
Beth Levison is an Academy Award-nominated American independent documentary film producer and director based in New York City. Following a career in unscripted television, she has been in the independent documentary filmmaking trenches for the last 15 years.
Omar Mullick is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer. He has directed and served as cinematographer on These Birds Walk (2013), The Vow (2020), and Flight/Risk (2022).