Katja Esson is a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

filmmaker based in Miami, Florida. She was born and raised in Germany. Her documentary ''Ferry Tales'' received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary (Short Subject) in 2004. She is the only female German filmmaker ever nominated for a documentary at the Academy Awards.

Early life and education

Esson was born Katja Kümmerle, in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany. After graduating from secondary school in Hamburg, she moved to the United States to study film, earning a Bachelor in Motion Pictures and Theater at the University of Miami, Florida.

Career

Esson began working in the film industry as a director's assistant on German features, and a production assistant in Miami. She moved to New York in 1994. She was married to Cuban painter Tomas Esson. Since the year 2000, she has worked as a writer-director. Her documentaries have screened internationally on numerous festivals in the US, Asia and Europe, and have won international awards. In 2011, her film ''Poetry of Resilience'' won the award for Best Short Documentary at the

Woodstock Film Festival The Woodstock Film Festival is an American film festival that was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto with the goal to bring high quality independent film to the Hudson Valley region. The festival takes place each fa ...

. In 2012, her film ''Skydancer'' was nominated for three awards at the Shanghai Television Festival (Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Camera). Her films have also been broadcast on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and

channel Thirteen WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

, as well as

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

and ARD in Europe. In 2004, she started her own production company, ''Penelope Pictures''. In 2007, Esson received the Simons Public Humanities Fellowship and was nominated for a Rockefeller Media Grant.

Filmography

* ''American Rivers'' (2016) * ''Backroads USA'' (2013) * ''Skydancer'' (2011) * ''Poetry of Resilience'' (2011)."THE 12th WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL"
''Filmmaker Magazine'' * ''Latching On – The Politics of Breastfeeding'' (2010) * ''Hooker, Harlot, Whore – The Oldest Profession'' (2009) * ''A Season of Madness'' (2006) * ''Hole in the Sky – The Scars of 9/11'' (2006) 04.09.2006 * ''Ferry Tales'' (2003) * ''Vertical Traveler'' (2001)

Awards and nominations (selection)

* 2012 nomination, Shanghai Film and TV Festival Magnolia Award for Best Documentary ''Skydancer'' (2011) * 2011 Woodstock Film Festival Diane Seligman Award for Best Short Documentary: ''Poetry of Resilience'' (2011) * 2009 US International Film and Video Festival Silver Screen Award: ''Hooker, Harlot, Whore – The Oldest Profession'' (2009) * 2006 World Media Festival Gold Award: ''Hole in the Sky'' (2006) * 2004 nomination,

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) 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 annou ...

: ''Ferry Tales'' (2003)

References

External links

*
KatjaEsson.com
— Katja Esson's homepage