Eva Orner

Eva Orner is an Australian, Academy and Emmy Award winning film producer and director based in Los Angeles. Her works include Untold Desires (winner of Best Documentary at the Australian Film Institute Awards, the Logie Awards and the Australian Human Rights Awards), Strange Fits of Passion (nominated for the Critics' Award at the Cannes Film Festival), Taxi to the Dark Side (winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary),^[1][2] and Gonzo, The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson. Orner's directorial debut, The Network, a feature documentary set behind the scenes of Afghanistan's largest television station, premiered in the US in March 2013.

Orner grew up in Melbourne, Australia and was educated at Mt Scopus Memorial College and Monash University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1993.^[3]

Orner, along with actress Cate Blanchett, was one of only two Australians nominated for an Oscar in 2008. Most commentators predicted that Michael Moore's Sicko would win the Best Documentary category. However, to the surprise of many, Orner's Taxi to the Dark Side, which examines US torture practices in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, received the award.^[4]

Within hours, Orner created controversy by describing the US Government as "a bunch of war criminals".^[5]

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