--- name: "Joshua Oppenheimer" canonical: "https://film.one/person/joshua-oppenheimer" fi1m_id: "joshua-oppenheimer" imdb_id: "nm1484791" tmdb_id: 53296 wikidata_id: "Q6290103" roles: ["Director"] born: "23 September 1974" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 88 average_as: "director" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-17T18:42:28.979548+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Joshua Oppenheimer ## Identity Joshua Oppenheimer - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/joshua-oppenheimer - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** joshua-oppenheimer - **IMDb ID:** nm1484791 - **TMDB ID:** 53296 - **Wikidata ID:** Q6290103 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Oppenheimer, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6290103, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1484791/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/53296 Director. Born 23 September 1974 in Texas, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 23 September 1974, Texas, USA - **Active:** 2012–2014 - **Also known as:** Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Average Fi1m score:** 88, as director, over 2 titles - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Oppenheimer, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6290103, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1484791/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/53296 ## Streaming the US now - **The Roku Channel:** [*The Act of Killing*](https://film.one/film/the-act-of-killing.md) (88) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Joshua Oppenheimer > Joshua Oppenheimer gives perpetrators room to stage their own stories, with disturbing results. We strongly recommend *The Act of Killing*, while wanting more of the history beyond the men’s accounts. In *The Act of Killing* (2012), the men responsible for mass killings choose the film genres in which to restage their crimes. Oppenheimer gives them room to enjoy the exercise, and their enthusiasm makes accusation almost unnecessary. We were disturbed by their eagerness to turn what they had done into entertainment. They want to be watched, and his method makes us uncomfortable about continuing to watch. It is forceful documentary-making, with a serious gap in the history it provides. His interest in invented and recorded behaviour was there in the early short *The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase* (1997), which mixes real and faux documentary material. Work with plantation workers on *The Globalisation Tapes* took him to Indonesia in 2001–02, leading to nearly a decade spent on *The Act of Killing*. His collaborators include co-directors Christine Cynn and an anonymous Indonesian colleague, alongside producer Signe Byrge Sørensen. The willingness to let subjects shape their own appearance is central to what makes his method work. In *The Act of Killing*, that freedom lets us see how the perpetrators understand themselves, rather than merely hear what they did. Their wish to make an appealing screen appearance is recognisable, which is part of the discomfort; it does not make their crimes forgivable. But Oppenheimer stays so close to their imaginations that he leaves too much unexplained about the circumstances that enabled the killings and protected the killers afterwards. We need more than their accounts to understand the Indonesian killings of 1965. *The Look of Silence* (2014) shifts attention towards a survivor confronting perpetrators and the lasting effects on victims’ families. For his first narrative feature, *The End* (2024), he turns to a post-apocalyptic musical about a wealthy family in a bunker. Guilt and self-deception remain his subjects. Begin with *The Act of Killing*, and seek a fuller historical account alongside it. ## Biography Joshua Oppenheimer is an American and British film director. He was born on 23 September 1974 in Texas, USA, and is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied filmmaking at Harvard College, where he received a BA summa cum laude, and later earned a PhD from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, as a Marshall Scholar. Oppenheimer is best known for the documentaries *The Act of Killing* (2012) and *The Look of Silence* (2014), both concerning the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. His narrative feature debut, *The End* (2024), is a post-apocalyptic musical that he also co-wrote. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2014 and has won a BAFTA and other major awards. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, macfound.org.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *The Look of Silence* (2014), Fi1m 87, as Self (voice) — [page](https://film.one/film/the-look-of-silence.md) - *The Act of Killing* (2012), Fi1m 88, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-act-of-killing.md) ## Complete filmography (22) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Revolution Against Death* (2026), Director, Producer - *The End* (2024), Director, Writer, Producer, Lyricist - *A Terrible Beauty* (2024), Producer - *2nd Chance* (2022), Executive Producer - *Songs of Repression* (2021), Producer - *A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot* (2017), Executive Producer - *Joshua Oppenheimer on Night and Fog* (2016), Actor - *The Look of Silence* (2014), Director — Fi1m 87, [page](https://film.one/film/the-look-of-silence.md) - *The Act of Killing* (2012), Director, Producer — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/the-act-of-killing.md) - *Postcard from Sun City, Arizona* (2004), Director - *Market Update* (2003), Director - *A Brief History of Paradise as Told by the Cockroaches* (2003), Director - *The Globalisation Tapes* (2003), Director, Producer, Cinematography, Editor - *Muzak, A Tool of Management* (2003), Director - *Land of Enchantment* (2000), Director - *The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase* (1998), Director, Writer, Editor, Sound Designer - *Hugh* (1996), Director - *These Places We've Learned to Call Home* (1996), Director, Producer, Cinematography, Editor - *The Challenge of Manufacturing* (1996), Director - *Camera Test* (1995), Director - *Light Test* (1995), Director - *Infinite*, Script ## Gallery - ![Joshua Oppenheimer](https://film.one/media/person/120382/gallery-6de9a6161cd6.jpg) Joshua Oppenheimer — Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Joshua_Oppenheimer_2015.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Foto: Stephan Röhl Verleihung des Friedensfilmpreis 2015 im Kino Babylon in Berlin Mitte.](https://film.one/media/person/120382/gallery-7c7e0e84c0b9.jpg) Foto: Stephan Röhl Verleihung des Friedensfilmpreis 2015 im Kino Babylon in Berlin Mitte. — Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung from Berlin, Deutschland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Albert_Eckert%2C_Otmar_Alt%2C_Joshua_Oppenheimer%2C_Katrin_Schl%C3%B6sser_%2816360397190%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Joshua Oppenheimer - American and Danish based film director poet - at Filmhuset, Copenhagen during the opening of "Sculpting the Past", featuring his documenta (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/120382/gallery-4761d8f7c121.jpg) Joshua Oppenheimer - American and Danish based film director poet - at Filmhuset, Copenhagen during the opening of "Sculpting the Past", featuring his documenta (2013) — Mogens Engelund, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Joshua_Lincoln_Oppenheimer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Joshua Oppenheimer, Walter Murch, and Annette Insdorf at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival during the Saturday Noon Seminar panel discussion.](https://film.one/media/person/120382/gallery-f37f4cdff984.jpg) Joshua Oppenheimer, Walter Murch, and Annette Insdorf at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival during the Saturday Noon Seminar panel discussion. — Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Joshua_Oppenheimer%2C_Walter_Murch%2C_and_Annette_Insdorf_at_the_2024_Telluride_Film_Festival.jpg/1280px-Joshua_Oppenheimer%2C_Walter_Murch%2C_and_Annette_Insdorf_at_the_2024_Telluride_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Joshua Oppenheimer face picture (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/120382/gallery-0227b8285c66.jpg) Joshua Oppenheimer face picture (2011) — Daisysun777, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Joshua_Oppenheimer.jpg/1280px-Joshua_Oppenheimer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Verleihung des Friedensfilmpreis 2015 im Kino Babylon in Berlin Mitte.](https://film.one/media/person/120382/gallery-ced8488ddda6.jpg) Verleihung des Friedensfilmpreis 2015 im Kino Babylon in Berlin Mitte. — Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung from Berlin, Deutschland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Joshua_Oppenheimer_%2815927377144%29.jpg/1280px-Joshua_Oppenheimer_%2815927377144%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 2016: Best Documentary Feature Film (nominated), for *The Look of Silence* ### Other awards — 1 won, 1 nominated - European Film Award for Best Documentary 2015: European Film Award for Best Documentary (nominated), for *The Look of Silence* - European Film Award for Best Documentary 2013: European Film Award for Best Documentary (won), for *The Act of Killing* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/joshua-oppenheimer