Emily Kassie

Emily Kassie (born December 15, 1992) is a Canadian filmmaker and investigative journalist. Her work has focused on conflict, human rights and abuses of power. She directed, produced and shot the documentary Sugarcane (2024), which won the U.S. Documentary Directing Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[1]

Early life and education

Kassie was born in Toronto and graduated with honors from Brown University.[2] She was awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to the University of Cambridge, where she completed an MPhil in international relations and politics.[3]

In 2015, her short documentary I Married My Family's Killer, about intermarriage in post-genocide Rwanda, won a Student Academy Award.[4] The film was later broadcast by the CBC.[5]

Career

In 2016, Kassie received a World Press Photo award for an investigation into DuPont's chemical contamination in West Virginia.[6] The following year, her reporting on the refugee crisis in Niger, Turkey, Italy and Germany received an Overseas Press Club Award[7] and a National Magazine Award.[8]

Kassie subsequently oversaw visual journalism at Highline, HuffPost's investigative magazine, and served as director of visual projects at The Marshall Project.[9]

In 2019, Kassie's New York Times documentary on sexual abuse in U.S. immigration detention was presented during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on family separation and received a World Press Photo award and an Emmy nomination.[10] She won a second National Magazine Award in 2020 for her reporting on immigration detention,[11] which was also nominated for a Peabody Award.[12]

In 2021, Kassie directed a Frontline documentary following an undocumented family during the COVID-19 pandemic, which received an Emmy nomination.[13] That year, she reported from Taliban-held Afghanistan with PBS NewsHour correspondent Jane Ferguson ahead of the fall of Kabul. Their reporting formed part of PBS NewsHour's coverage of Afghanistan that received an Overseas Press Club Award.[14]

Sugarcane

Kassie made her feature directorial debut with Sugarcane, co-directed with Julian Brave NoiseCat. Kassie also served as a producer and cinematographer on the film, which follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at a former Indian residential school in British Columbia.

Sugarcane premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where Kassie and NoiseCat won the U.S. Documentary Directing Award.[15] The film was subsequently acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films for theatrical and streaming distribution.

The film received the National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary[16] and two Critics' Choice Documentary Awards. It was screened at the White House[17] and included on Barack Obama's list of favorite films of 2024. In 2025, Kassie, NoiseCat and producer Kellen Quinn were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Selected awards and nominations

Year Organization Category Result
2025 Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature Nominated
2025 Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Nominated
2025 Cinema Eye Honors Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography Won
2024 National Board of Review Best Documentary Won
2024 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Best Political Documentary / Best True Crime Documentary Won
2024 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Documentary Directing Award Won
2021 Overseas Press Club Award Peter Jennings Award Won
2020 National Magazine Awards Multimedia Won
2019 News and Documentary Emmy Awards Hard News Feature Nominated
2019 World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Won
2017 National Magazine Awards Multimedia Won
2017 Overseas Press Club Award Digital Reporting on International Affairs Won
2016 World Press Photo Immersive Storytelling Won
2015 Student Academy Award Documentary Won

References

  1. ↑ "2024 Sundance Film Festival Announces Award Winners". Sundance Institute. 26 January 2024.
  2. ↑ "Student Spotlight: Emily Kassie '14". Watson School of International and Public Affairs. Brown University. 26 May 2017.
  3. ↑ "Brown alumni win prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarships". Brown University. 13 June 2016.
  4. ↑ "Academy Reveals 2015 Student Academy Award Winners". Oscars.org. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2015-08-25.
  5. ↑ "CBC.ca - Program Guide - Programs". CBC.
  6. ↑ "World Press Photo 2016 winners - in pictures". The Guardian. 2016-02-18. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  7. ↑ "OPC 20 Best Digital Reporting on International Affairs". opcofamerica.org. 24 March 2017.
  8. ↑ "The 2017 National Magazine Award Winners: A Reading List". Longreads. 2017-02-07.
  9. ↑ "Emily Kassie". The Marshall Project.
  10. ↑ "I Just Simply Did What He Wanted | World Press Photo". World Press Photo.
  11. ↑ "The American Society of Magazine Editors Announces Winners for 2020 National Magazine Awards". ASME.
  12. ↑ "Detained". The Peabody Awards.
  13. ↑ "42nd Annual News & Documentary Nominations – The Emmys". The Emmys. 27 July 2021. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  14. ↑ "Awards Recipients". Overseas Press Club.
  15. ↑ "2024 Sundance Film Festival Announces Award Winners". Sundance Institute. 26 January 2024.
  16. ↑ "2024 Awards Gala". National Board of Review.
  17. ↑ "'Sugarcane' exposes truths about Indigenous schools in Canada. It's already made Oscars history". Associated Press.
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