Katja Esson is a

German-American German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

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 Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, 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 launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto in the Hudson Valley region of New York. The festival takes place each fall in the towns of Woodstock, Rosendale and Saug ...

. 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 broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, 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 based a ...

and channel Thirteen, as well as

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

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

* ''Razing Liberty Square'' (2023) * ''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 announ ...

: ''Ferry Tales'' (2003)

References

External links

*
KatjaEsson.com
— Katja Esson's homepage