Sean Fine is an American cinematographer, producer and film director whose film '' Inocente'' won the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). He directs his films with his wife, Andrea Nix Fine. The Fines' first feature-length film '' War/Dance'' about child soldiers was nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

in 2007. In 2013 their film, Life According to Sam won both a Peabody Award and an Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary filmmaking. The Fines launched a boutique film studio Change Content to develop documentaries that affect way audiences feel about critical issues. Change Content's first film LFG (film) premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

and was instrumental in the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team achieving equal pay.

Life and career

Fine grew up around filmmaking. His parents co-directed award-winning documentary programs for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and 60 Minutes, with his father also being the cinematographer and his mother the

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film ed ...

.Interview with the Fines
International Documentary Association, official website. Retrieved December 26, 2010 Fine's grandfather was the photographer for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

for over 50 years, making Fine a 3rd generation photographer. He attributes his eye to learning from his father and grandfather, and his editing skills to watching his mother work throughout his childhood. He attended

Georgetown Day School Georgetown Day School (GDS) is an independent coeducational PK-12 school located in Washington, D.C. The school educates 1,075 elementary, middle, and high school students in northwestern Washington, D.C. Russell Shaw is the current Head of Sc ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and is a 1996 graduate of

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...

, where he earned a degree in

Zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

. It was not until he took a summer film course at

NYU Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

that he realized he wanted to make films for a living. After graduating from college, he went to work for '' National Geographic'', where he met his wife, Andrea Nix. Within a year after starting to work for ''National Geographic'', he was directing his first documentary, which won two national Emmy Awards. During his time at ''National Geographic'', Fine traveled to over 30 countries and gained experience shooting in very difficult and remote locations. In 2004, Fine and his wife left ''National Geographic'' to start their own production company, ''Fine Films''. They decided to make a documentary about the twenty-year-old civil war in northern

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

after having been contacted by a non-profit, Shine Global. Their son was a year old at the time of filming, causing them to stay in separate parts of Uganda during filming due to the dangers involved.Benjamin Crossley-Marra
Interview
Ion Cinema, official website. November 8, 2007. Retrieved December 26, 2010 He was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Documentary Feature in 2007 for ''War/Dance'', which he produced with his wife, Andrea Nix.The New York Times
/ref> They also collaborated on the 2013 documentary, '' Life According to Sam'', produced by HBO and the 2021 documentary LFG (film) about the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team's fight for

equal pay Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...

Filmography

* '' War/Dance'' (2007) * '' Lindsey Vonn: In the Moment'' (2011) * '' Inocente'' (2012) * '' Life According to Sam'' (2013) * '' LFG'' (2021)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fine, Sean American documentary film directors Living people Connecticut College alumni Directors of Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Georgetown Day School alumni