Joe Berlinger

Academy Award, eight-time Emmy nominated, and Peabody, DGA, and Sundance winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger has been a pioneering force in nonfiction filmmaking for over three decades. In a recent Bloomberg profile, Berlinger was described as a “true crime hit factory” for Netflix, whose work has “redefined crime documentaries as a vehicle for social justice.” The article quoted Adam Del Deo, VP for original documentary series at Netflix: “He’s the gold standard in true crime. The moral compass that he has, the sense of responsibility he has for victims and for getting the story right and shining a light on it, that is something that is very unique.” Berlinger is the creator of landmark documentaries such as Sundance winner BROTHER’S KEEPER, which influenced a generation of documentarians and the PARADISE LOST Trilogy, which helped lead to the release of the wrongfully-convicted West Memphis Three, and METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER, a film that redefined the rockumentary genre. CRUDE, which examined the dire issue of oil pollution in the ancestral homeland of thousands of Ecuadorians in the Amazon Rainforest, won 22 human rights, environmental and film festival awards and triggered a high profile First Amendment battle with the Chevron Corporation. Eight of Berlinger’s films, including his Emmy-nominated 2012 Paul Simon documentary, UNDER AFRICAN SKIES, have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and have earned three Grand Jury Prize nominations. He has also received multiple awards from the Directors Guild of America, the National Board of Review, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Critics Choice awards.

Berlinger holds a streak of chart-topping series on Netflix, attracting enormous audiences and igniting global conversation by becoming the first filmmaker to simultaneously cover the same subject in scripted and unscripted forms with CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER: THE TED BUNDY TAPES and EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL, AND VILE, which starred Zac Efron, Lilly Collins, and John Malkovich and sold to Netflix in a Sundance bidding war for almost $10 million. The recently released film GHISLAINE MAXWELL: FILTHY RICH and doc series BERNIE MADOFF: THE MONSTER OF WALL STREET also both debuted as the #1 documentaries upon their release.