Sonia Kennebeck is an independent filmmaker and investigative journalist with almost 20 years of directing and producing experience. Her most recent feature documentary United States vs. Reality Winner premiered at SXSW 2021, and her documentary thriller Enemies of the State was one of only 50 films in the official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival 2020.
Sonia’s first feature-length film, National Bird, premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2016, and was selected for Tribeca, Sheffield, and IDFA festivals. The film received the prestigious Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize and a 2018 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary. A New York Times Op-Doc Sonia directed has been viewed 5 million times.
Foreign Policy recognized Sonia as one of 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2016, and she was selected as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2016 by Filmmaker magazine. In 2019 DOC NYC included her in the annual 40 Under 40 list of documentary filmmakers. She is the 2021 recipient of the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award.
Before she became an independent filmmaker, Sonia directed eight television documentaries and more than 50 investigative reports for German public television. Kennebeck is a first-generation college graduate, who worked full time while completing her master’s degree in international affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. She was born in Malacca, Malaysia.
