Jessica Sanders is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and award-winning commercial director. Jessica was recently honored at the prestigious Shots Young Director Awards in Cannes for her Sony “Make Believe” film, which also won an AICP award. She recently directed Apple’s national iPad launch spot, and an integrated campaign for Toyota. Jessica was also featured in Shoot’s New Directors Showcase and was a First Board Awards Finalist.

Jessica directed, produced and wrote After Innocence, a feature documentary film that tells the compelling story of innocent men wrongfully convicted, cleared by DNA evidence and their dramatic struggle to reenter society after spending decades in prison. The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, and also won top awards at the Seattle Film Festival, Boston Independent Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, and Full Frame Documentary Festival. The film was released theatrically by New Yorker Films before being broadcast on Showtime. After Innocence was shortlisted for the 78th Academy Awards.

Jessica recently completed March of the Living, a feature documentary about the last generation of Holocaust survivors going back to the sites of the Holocaust in Poland with teenagers from around the world. The film was shot in Brazil, Germany, Poland, Israel and the US, and will be released in 2010. Jessica produced the film Sing!, which was nominated in 2002 for an Oscar for Best Short Documentary. Sing! is about a community children’s chorus, which amidst severe cutbacks in the arts, becomes one of the best choirs in the country. The film played theatrically and aired on PBS. Her previous film, Los Angels, a narrative short film that she wrote, produced, and directed played at numerous festivals and received top awards at the Chicago International and New Orleans Film Festivals. She recently completed Keepers of the Night, documentary about a new opera with 65 child opera singers.

Jessica and her work have been profiled on The Sundance Channel, MTV, MSNBC, CNN, Larry King Live, Dateline, Fox News, Court TV and NPR. She has been profiled in The New York Times, LA Weekly, Giant Robot Magazine, and Film Festival Magazine. She has lectured at various universities and conferences, including the National Innocence Network Conference, Tribeca Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival, and the California State Senate.

Jessica majored in Film Studies and English at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and graduated with honors. Sanders is an alumna of the Film Independent’s Producers & Screenwriters Lab and Tribeca Film Festival’s All Access Program. Jessica directs commercials for EPOCH FILMS and is a DGA and WGA member.

Jessica’s first screenplay My Daily Routine was accepted into Film Independent’s 2007 Screenwriters Lab.