Anonymous Content has signed Oscar and Pulitzer Prize-winning filmmaker and journalist Laura Poitras, the director behind “Citizenfour” and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” which was recently nominated for an Academy Award.
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” premiered in competition at the 2022 Venice Film Festival where it won the Golden Lion for best film, making it the second documentary in the festival’s history to win the top prize. The docu, about U.S. artist and activist Nan Goldin and her battle to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid overdose crisis, also played at numerous high profile festivals including Telluride and Toronto. Last year “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” made history when it became the first docu to ever be selected as the centerpiece film at New York Film Festival. “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” was the only film – docu or narrative – to play at the four top tier fests in 2022.
In addition to receiving an Oscar nomination, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” has garnered nominations from orgs including BAFTA and DGA. The film also received an Indie Spirit Award nomination.
“Laura is a cinematic force, and one of the most courageous filmmakers working,” Anonymous Content’s Nick Shumaker says. “It is truly an honor to lock arms, and work to expand her audience and her ability to create timeless and essential work.”
Poitras received an Academy Award for her 2014 documentary “Citizenfour”, about whistleblower Edward Snowden and the National Security Agency’s illegal global mass surveillance programs. Poitras’ reporting about the NSA received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and the George Polk Award for national security journalism in 2014. In 2006 Poitras’ film “My Country, My Country,” about the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, was nominated for an Oscar.
“I am thrilled to join forces with Anonymous Content, whose track-record of supporting innovative, genre-defying, and risk-taking filmmakers, creators, and authors is unique among media organizations,” says Poitras.
In addition to her work as a filmmaker and journalist, Poitras co-founded The Intercept, Field of Vision, and First Look Media, and is a founding board member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Poitras’ first solo museum exhibition of installation work, “Astro Noise,” opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2016. Her production company, Praxis Films, was founded in 2004 and is operated with Academy Award-nominated producer Yoni Golijov.
Anonymous Content is currently handling sales for the doc “5 Season of Revolution,” which Poitras executive produced.
Praxis Films produced “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” with Participant. The film is being distributed by Neon, HBO Documentary Films, and Altitude Films.
