Documentarian Julia Reichert will soon have another honor to go with her Emmy and three Oscar noms. Hot Docs has announced it is presenting the director with its Outstanding Achievement Award at its 2019 festival. The annual prize is given “in recognition of a filmmaker’s enduring contribution to the documentary form.” Hot Docs will also host a retrospective of Reichert’s work, and the filmmaker is set to attend the fest and participate in a discussion and several post-screening Q&As.
Previous Outstanding Achievement awardees include Barbara Kopple, Kim Longinotto, Alanis Obomsawin, Heddy Honigmann, and Chris Hegedus.
Reichert has helmed or co-helmed seven feature docs as well as several TV and short documentaries. She nabbed Academy Award nods for best documentary feature for “Union Maids,” a portrait of three female union organizers, and “Seeing Red,” an exploration of the American Communist Party.” Reichert was nominated for the best doc short Oscar for “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.” She received an Emmy for “A Lion in the House,” a four-hour chronicle of several families’ experiences with cancer treatment over six years.
A co-founder of New Day Films, an independent film distribution co-op, Reichert is also the author of “Doing It Yourself,” a guide on self-distributing indies.
Her latest film, “American Factory,” a look at the culture clash between residents of an economically depressed Ohio town and the Chinese billionaire who opens a factory there, will debut at Sundance January 25. Reichert directed the doc with frequent collaborator Steven Bognar.
Hot Docs 2019 will take place April 25-May 5 in Toronto, Canada.
