Powerhouse exec Sheila Nevins will be honored at this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest. Nevins is the president of HBO Documentary Films. She first joined the premium cable network in 1979 as Director of Documentary Programming. With the exception of a few years in the early-mid ’80s, Nevins has been with HBO in various capacities ever since. Nevins will receive the fest’s first-ever Creative Leadership Award. ScreenDaily reports that Doc/Fest launched the honor “to highlight an influential individual’s contribution to the international documentary industry.”
Nevins holds the record for most individual Emmy wins — she’s taken home 29 statuettes for her work on films such as “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” and “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.” In Women and Hollywood’s “Meet the Women Directors” feature, interviewees including often credit Nevins for her invaluable contributions to their projects.
The so-called “Medici of Television” has identified the common thread of individual filmmakers whose work she produces as follows: “honest, forthright, and about one thing — a better understanding of the human condition. All the films reach out to other people with a message.”
Nevins was the 2015 recipient of The President’s Visionary Award at the Athena Film Festival, a celebration of women and leadership.
Sheffield Doc/Fest kicks off June 10. The English fest launched in 1994 and is the third biggest documentary film festival in the world. Nevins will receive her award at a ceremony June 14.
