Rebecca Cammisa (born 9 July 1966) is an American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

two-times Oscar nominated,

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

award winner, and founder of Documentress Films. Her first film '' Sister Helen'' (2002), aired on

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 ...

, won the 2002

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

’s Directing Award Documentary. Sister Helen also received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural and Artistic Programming and an Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Film Award nomination by the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...

. The documentary won the Gold Hugo Award for best documentary film at the

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

, the Jury Prize for best documentary film at the

Newport Film Festival Newport International Film Festival was an annual film festival in Newport, Rhode Island, established in 1998. The Newport Film Festival was generally held the first week in June and featured various international films at several local cinemas. ...

, the Best Documentary Film Award at the

Nashville Film Festival The Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm), held annually in Nashville, Tennessee, is the oldest running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. In 2016, Nashville Film Festival received more than 6,700 submissions from ...

;, the Freddie Award for outstanding performing by the International Health & Medical Media Awards and a Grand Marnier Foundation film grant. In addition, in 2006 the Museum of Modern Art Film Library acquired Sister Helen for its permanent collection. Rebecca teamed up with Mr.Mudd Productions to create "

Which Way Home ''Which Way Home'' is a 2009 documentary film directed by Rebecca Cammisa. The film follows several children who are attempting to get from Mexico and Central America to the United States, on top of a Rail freight transport, freight train that cro ...

" which had its world premiere at the

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

and its European premiere at the

Karlovy Vary Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (, KVIFF) is an annual film festival held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Eur ...

, both in 2009. The Traverse City Film Festival awarded ''Which Way Home'' its Special Jury Prize for

Human Rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

. When it aired in August of that year on HBO's Documentary Summer series, it reached over 3.5 million viewers. In 2010 ''Which Way Home'' won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Programming and received four more nominations in the News & Documentary category. It was also nominated for a 2010 Oscar and to Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. Cammisa was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Filmmaking, and in 2011, she directed and produced the HBO documentary '' God Is the Bigger Elvis'', which received an Oscar

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject on January 24, 2012. Her 2017 documentary " Atomic Homefront" won the 2019 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Television and the 2019 Impact Docs Award for Best Documentary Film and premiered at AFI Docs Film Festival.

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* Filmmakers from New York (state) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1966 births {{US-film-bio-stub