Eva Orner

Everwest · CC BY 4.0
- Born
- 1969 · Melbourne.
- Nationality
- Australia
- Occupation
- film producer · film director
- Education
- Monash University
- Honours
- Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film
In this article
Key facts
• Name — Eva Orner • Occupation — Producer, director 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), 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.
Early life
Orner grew up in Melbourne, Victoria, and was educated at Mount Scopus Memorial College and Monash University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993.
Career
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 Guantánamo Bay, received the award. Within hours, Orner created controversy by describing the US Government as "a bunch of war criminals". Orner directed and produced the AACTA award winning feature documentary Chasing Asylum. Released in 2016, the film takes a critical look at Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. She also directed and produced Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, for Netflix. The film was released in 2019 and had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2021, her film Burning was released. It is about climate change and the Black Summer Australian fires of 2019–2020. Burning had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In June 2022, HBO announced that Orner would be directing a documentary about the Ohio State University abuse scandal. A staffer at Smokehouse Pictures said in October 2023 that they were "still thick in production" on the documentary. The resulting film, Surviving Ohio State, was released on June 17, 2025. In April 2024, HBO released Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion, a documentary film directed by Orner.
Personal life
Orner is a vegetarian. She drives an electric car.
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Eva Orner, revision 1343023463 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Screen Australia – Former AFC -AustralianFilmsAndAwards – Features 2004.
- 2.Former Monash Student Wins Academy Award, Monash University.
- 3.Australian wins documentary Oscar. The Age. 25 February 2008.
- 4.Eva Orner comments on US government. heraldsun.com.au.
- 5.Delaney, Brigid. Eva Orner on Chasing Asylum: 'Every whistleblower that I interviewed wept' – New film features shocking footage from within offshore detention centres. 'I wanted to make a film that would shame Australia', the film-maker says. 30 April 2016.
- 6.Grater, Tom. 'Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator' Director Eva Orner Signs With WME. Deadline. 2020-01-16.
- 7.Unreich, Rachelle. 'I can't watch this again': Eva Orner on Burning, her call to climate action. The Sydney Morning Herald. 2021-11-05.
- 8.Porter, Rick. George Clooney's Ohio State Abuse Documentary Lands at HBO. The Hollywood Reporter. 7 June 2022.
- 9.Hurley, Bevan. New doc on the wrestling abuse that dogged Jim Jordan's Speaker run. The Independent. 2023-10-24.
- 10.HBO Original Documentary SURVIVING OHIO STATE Debuts June 17. Warner Bros. Discovery. June 5, 2025.
- 11.Moorman, Taijuan. 'Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion' doc examines controversial retailer Brandy Melville. USA TODAY. April 11, 2024.
- 12.Issawi, Danya. The Most Messed-up Findings in the Brandy Melville Documentary. The Cut. 2024-04-11.
- 13.Holtermann, Callie. 'Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion': 5 Takeaways. The New York Times. 2024-04-10. 0362-4331.
- 14.Walsh, Savannah. Brandy Melville Stores Are Hell on Earth. Vanity Fair. 2024-04-10.
Citations
References
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 28 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
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