About Director Madeleine Sackler
Madeleine Sackler is film director and producer working out of New York and Los Angeles. She has won an Emmy® Award and has had major networks release her films, including HBO.
Madeleine Sackler’s narrative feature debut, O.G., stars Jeffrey Wright and follows a prison inmate on the eve of his release after nearly a quarter of a century in jail. Jeffrey’s acting in the film was awarded the Best Actor at the Tribeca Film Festival. In tandem with the filming of O.G., Madeleine Sackler also filmed a documentary in partnership with thirteen incarcerated men, IT’S A HARD TRUTH AIN’T IT has the men retelling their stories and taking on active roles in the production of the film. These two films earned Madeleine the Bill Webber Award for Community Service from Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison.
Sackler attended Duke University, earning a B.S. in Psychology and minors in English and Biology. She originally trained as a film editor and worked on editing and post-production efforts for films like FERNANDO NATION, an ESPN 30-for-30 about Dodgers’ pitcher Fernando Valenzuela. Madeleine co-founded Osmosis Films, a media consulting company, before turning her skills and attention to film making. Over the years, she has accumulated a wide range of experience in the subjects, tone, and style of her films.
Her first feature documentary, THE LOTTERY, explored the efforts of four New York City families, in Harlem and the Bronx, to get top-tier educational programs for their children. Madeleine’s insightful and in-depth probe renewed discussions about the future of public education in America. It was shortlisted for the 2011 Academy Awards.
She co-produced her second film, DUKE 91&92: BACK TO BACK, with Turner Sports. With a thorough review of one of basketball’s most historic seasons, Madeleine Sackler offers viewers an inside look into college sports and a national pastime.
Madeleine’s third film, DANGEROUS ACTS STARRING THE UNSTABLE ELEMENTS OF BELARUS, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013 and was acquired by HBO. It won an Emmy in the Outstanding Arts and Cultural Programming category. The film recounts the political unrest and heroic civilian efforts of the Belarus Free Theatre, to fight the Belarus dictatorship. The movie includes clandestine footage that was smuggled out of Belarus by the Theatre’s performers. Beyond the Emmy Award, DANGEROUS ACTS also received the Grand Jury prize at One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, the Golden Butterfly at The Hague Movies that Matter Festival, Best Documentary at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, the Audience Award at Lighthouse International Film Festival, and 3 awards at Biografilm Festival, including the Audience Award.
Madeleine has also produced short films, such as Boyd Holbrook’s directorial debut, PEACOCK KILLER, starring Shea Whigham, and James Lawler’s sci-fi short, EDEN 2045, starring Tyler Jacob Moore.
- Journey Inside with Jeffrey Wright & Madeleine Sackler – Behind The Scenes Of O.G. | HBO
- Interview: Madeleine Sackler – O.G. / It’s a Hard Truth, Ain’t It
- Redemption Through Incarceration ft. Jeffrey Wright on O.G, a film by Madeleine Sackler
- Theothus Audition 1, a film by Madeleine Sackler
- Theothus Auditions 2, a film by Madeleine Sackler
- Madeleinesackler.com