Anne Aghion has been praised as a filmmaker of poetic vision and a unique documentarian
whose films, in the words of one critic, “pull us deep into the social fabric” of the places she
covers
She gained international renown for THE GACACA SERIES (pr. ga-CHA-cha), four films on post-
genocide justice and social reconstruction in Rwanda. There, Anne Aghion charted the emotional impact of a controversial system of justice that returned killers to their homes to live side-by-side with the survivors of unimaginable violence. The final film in the series, MY NEIGHBOR MY KILLER, premiered in Official Selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival; was nominated for Best
Documentary at the Gotham Awards; and earned Aghion the Nestor Almendros Award for
courage in filmmaking at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Additionally,
other films in the series received an Emmy Award and the UNESCO Fellini Prize.
The 2008 feature ICE PEOPLE was described by Variety as “staggeringly beautiful,” and New
York Magazine’s noted critic Bilge Ebiri wrote that “it might be the most immersive
documentary I’ve ever seen.” The film, which explores the physical, emotional and spiritual
adventure of living and conducting science in Antarctica, was produced with ARTE France and
ITVS International in association with Sundance Channel.
Her award-winning 1996 directorial debut SE LE MOVIÓ EL PISO: A PORTRAIT OF MANAGUA
(The Earth Moved Under Him), examines how Nicaraguan slum dwellers had survived the
double ravages of political and natural disasters.
In 2024, Anne Aghion finished TURBULENCE which poses the question: How do we overcome the heartbreaks, sorrow and traumas we endure or witness, and come out whole? The film,
written, directed and produced by Aghion, is made in association with Arte France – La Lucarne,
and with the participation of the French Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée,
Procirep & Angoa, Jewish Story Partners, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Anne Aghion has collected numerous prestigious awards for her work, among them a
Guggenheim Fellowship. She has earned a host of grants from such organizations as the United
States Institute of Peace, the National Science Foundation, the French Centre national du
cinéma et de l’image animée, and the Soros and Sundance Institute Documentary Funds. She
has had residencies at the MacDowell Colony in the United States, the Rockefeller Foundation’s
Bellagio Center, and others. For TURBULENCE she also received a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship to
India.
She has served as a juror for La Scam’s L’Oeil d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, International
Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and the International Documentary Association (IDA),
among others. She is an international speaker at universities and has conducted documentary
workshops and master classes at film programs in countries including Haiti, India, Morocco,
Lebanon, France and the United States. She serves on the board of Camargo Foundation’s
French association.
Anne Aghion holds a degree in Arab Language and Literature from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York. She spends her time between New York and France.