Sami Khan (filmmaker)

Last updated

Sami Khan is a Canadian filmmaker. [1] He is most noted as co-director with Smriti Mundhra of the film St. Louis Superman , which was an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020. [2]

Originally from Sarnia, Ontario, Khan attended Northern Collegiate Institute and Vocational School before studying film at Columbia University. [3] He wrote and directed the short films The Bride, The Workout, Habibi and 75 El Camino before premiering his debut feature film Khoya in 2015. [4] In 2020, Khan and Michael Gassert released the feature documentary film The Last Out, for which they received a special jury mention for the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. [5]

In addition to his work in film, Khan has also been a story editor on the Canadian television drama series Transplant . [6]

In November 2020, Sarnia's South Western International Film Festival included a retrospective program of Khan's works in its lineup, due to increased local interest in his work following the Academy Award nomination. [7]

Related Research Articles

The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to Kukan and Target for Tonight. They have since been bestowed competitively each year, with the exception of 1946. Copies of every winning film are held by the Academy Film Archive.

This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year. Copies of every winning film are held by the Academy Film Archive. Ten films are shortlisted before nominations are announced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Villeneuve</span> Canadian film director and screenwriter (born 1967)

Denis Villeneuve is a Canadian filmmaker. He is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction, winning for Maelström in 2001, Polytechnique in 2009, Incendies in 2010 and Enemy in 2013. The first three of these films also won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture, while the latter was awarded the prize for best Canadian film of the year by the Toronto Film Critics Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall Curry</span> American film director (born 1970)

Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).

Daniel Junge is an American documentary filmmaker. On February 26, 2012, he won the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film Saving Face, which he co-directed along with Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candescent Films</span>

Candescent Films is an American film production company that produces and finances documentary and narrative films that explore social issues.

Lilly Hartley is an American documentary film producer and actress, and the founder of Candescent Films.

Motto Pictures is a documentary production company based in Brooklyn, New York specializing in producing and executive producing documentary features. Motto secures financing, builds distribution strategies, and creatively develops films, and has produced over 25 feature documentaries and won numerous awards.

Laura Checkoway is an American journalist and filmmaker, known for her documentary Edith+Eddie for which she received an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject nomination at the 90th Academy Awards. The film also received an Emmy nomination and won numerous awards including the IDA Documentary Awards Best Short. In The New Yorker, critic Richard Brody wrote: “One of the most impressive aspects of Checkoway’s film is that, with a simple and straightforward approach, she brings the overwhelming force of abstract institutions seemingly onto the screen.” Academy Award winning filmmaker Julia Reichert called Edith+Eddie "One of the most beautiful and quietly furious films I've ever seen." Checkoway's documentary The Cave of Adullam is executive produced by Laurence Fishburne and premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2022, winning Best Documentary Feature, Best Editing, and the Audience Award. She received NYWIFT’s Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking Award in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">91st Academy Awards</span> Award ceremony for films of 2018

The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2018 and took place on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and was produced by Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss, with Weiss also serving as director. This was the first telecast to have no host since the 61st ceremony held in 1989.

Garrett Bradley is an American filmmaker and director of short films, feature films, documentaries, and television. She is known for blending cinematic genres to explore the larger sociopolitical significance of the everyday moments of her subjects' lived experience.

<i>St. Louis Superman</i> 2019 American documentary film

St. Louis Superman is a 2019 American short documentary film about activist, battle rapper, and former politician Bruce Franks Jr. It was directed by Sami Khan and Smriti Mundhra. It was released by MTV Documentary Films.

Smriti Mundhra is an Indian-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her production company, Meralta Films, specializes in documentary films and non-fiction content.

The South Western International Film Festival is an annual film festival in Sarnia, Ontario. Launched in 2015, the festival programs a lineup of Canadian and international films in November each year, at the city's Imperial Theatre and Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery.

<i>Mr. Soul!</i> 2018 film by Melissa Haizlip

Mr. Soul! is a 2018 American documentary film produced, written and directed by documentary filmmaker Melissa Haizlip. The film was co-produced by Doug Blush and co-directed by Sam Pollard. The film tells the story of Ellis Haizlip, the producer and host of SOUL!, the music-and-talk program that aired on public television from 1968 to 1973 and aimed at a Black audience. It was released in 2018 and has since received 21 filmmaking awards. Attorney Chaz Ebert, record executive Ron Gillyard, producer and director Stan Lathan, producer Rishi Rajani, producer Stephanie T. Rance, actor Blair Underwood and screenwriter, producer and actress Lena Waithe are the executive producers of the film.

Stateless is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Michèle Stephenson and released in 2020. The film centres on the crisis of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, many of whom have been left stateless by the Dominican Republic's 2013 decision to strip citizenship from Haitian immigrants and their descendants.

<i>Ascension</i> (film) 2021 American film

Ascension is a 2021 American documentary film directed and produced by Jessica Kingdon. It follows the pursuit of the Chinese dream through the social classes, prioritizing productivity and innovation.

<i>The Queen of Basketball</i> 2021 American film

The Queen of Basketball is a 2021 American documentary short film by Ben Proudfoot about basketball legend Lusia Harris. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 10, 2021 and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Jessica Kingdon is a Chinese American director and producer. She was nominated for the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for directing the documentary Ascension.

References