LAURA TOMASELLI is an Emmy-WINNING DIRECTOR & EDITOR who believes in the power of storytelling to change minds.
The recipient of a fellowship from the Sundance Documentary Fund, Tomaselli was nominated for a 2024 Film Independent Spirit Award and was selected as part of DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40.
Her most recent film, LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES, premiered at Tribeca in 2022. A New York Times Critics’ Pick, the film was released theatrically by IFC Films and garnered two Critics’ Choice Award Nominations for Best Political and Best Historical Documentary. The film was awarded a 2023 Television Academy Honor, and won two Documentary Emmy Awards for Best Documentary and Best Direction in 2024.
Previously, Tomaselli received a Cinema Eye Honor Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Editing for MLK/FBI, which won the Critics Choice Award for Best Historical Documentary and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards in 2021.
Her work has screened at Sundance, Telluride, The New York Film Festival, TIFF, MoMA, and SXSW.
AWARDS
2024 NEWS AND DOC EMMY AWARDS WINNER – Best Documentary, Best Director
2024 FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD ‘TRUER THAN FICTION’ NOMINEE
2023 TELEVISION ACADEMY HONOR
2023 FILM FEST DC – Justice Matters Award
2023 MILWAUKEE FILM FESTIVAL – Emerging Documentary Prize
2022 GLOBE DOCS BOSTON – Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
2021 CINEMA EYE HONORS NOMINEE – Outstanding Achievement in Editing
SELECT PRESS FOR LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
‘Lakota Nation vs. United States’: Film Review
ROLLING STONE
Mark Ruffalo Calls Out Hollywood’s ‘Harm’ to Native Americans
VANITY FAIR
’Lakota Nation vs. the United States’ and the Fight for the Black Hills
VARIETY
America’s Real History Is Revealed in ‘Lakota Nation vs. United States’
FOR MLK/FBI
MOVIEMAKER MAGAZINE
”Director Sam Pollard and Editor Laura Tomaselli on Building a Fruitful Working Relationship”
NO FILM SCHOOL
”How 'MLK/FBI' Editor Laura Tomaselli Found Truth Through Archival Footage”
POST PERSPECTIVE
”Laura Tomaselli on Co-Writing and Editing the MLK/FBI Doc”
SELECT FESTIVALS
LAKOTA NATION VS UNITED STATES – Directors Jesse Short Bull + Laura Tomaselli
2022 Tribeca Film Festival
2022 Hot Springs Film Festival
2022 SFFilm Doc Stories
2022 Traverse City Film Festival
2023 Palm Springs Film Festival
2023 DocLands Film Festival
MLK/FBI – Director Sam Pollard
2020 Toronto International Film Festival – World Premiere
2020 New York Film Festival
2020 Telluride Film Festival
FEATHERS – Director AV Rockwell
2018 Toronto International Film Festival – World Premiere
2019 Sundance Film Festival
2019 The Museum of Modern Art “The Future of Film Is Female”
