Thomas Lennon

Thomas Lennon's work in documentary film has earned him an Academy Award and four Academy nominations. But more often his good fortune has come in pairs: two national Emmys, two duPont-Columbia awards, two George Foster Peabody awards, and two films that premiered at Sundance. In 2017, Lennon completed Knife Skills, a film about a high-end French restaurant staffed almost entirely by men and women with criminal records, which was nominated for an Academy Award. While working on this film, he was also directing Sacred, a sweeping global documentary that explores the role of prayer and ritual in daily life, drawing on the contributions of over 40 filmmaking teams from around the world. Sacred premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival in November 2016 and has to date been invited to more than 25 international festivals. It is due to air on PBS in 2018. Lennon, in partnership with Ruby Yang, made a trilogy of films set in China, including The Blood of Yingzhou District, which won an Oscar in