Sally Aitken

Sally Aitken is an Australian documentary film and television director, writer, and producer. She is known for Playing with Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story; David Stratton: A Cinematic Life; and Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles. She is co-founder, co-principal (with Aline Jacques), and director of the all-female film production company SAM Content.

Career Sally Aitken has produced, written, and directed several documentary films.

She is known for her work on the documentaries Playing with Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story, David Stratton: A Cinematic Life (about film critic David Stratton), Streets of Your Town, and The Week the Women Went.

In 2022, she co-founded the production company Sam Content, with Aline Jacques. In the same year, her documentary Playing with Sharks, which was produced by Bettina Dalton, was screened at Sundance. released in 2023. Co-writer and -director was Fraser Grut, and Aline Jacques, Cass Avery, Daniel Story, and Fraser Grut were co-producers on the film.

She wrote and directed the feature-length documentary, Every Little Thing, which was selected for screening in the documentary competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The film was produced by Bettina Dalton, and edited by Tania Nehme. It also screened at Adelaide Film Festival in October 2024, with Aitken in attendance at the first screening. The film follows retired writer and teacher Terry Masear, who rescues injured and abandoned hummingbirds at her bird rescue centre, the Los Angeles Hummingbird Rescue, for a season.

Accolades Aitken was nominated for Emmy Awards in 2018 at the International Emmy Award for Best Arts Programming for the documentary film David Stratton: A Cinematic Life, and at the 43rd News and Documentary Emmy Awards for the documentary Playing With Sharks in 2022.

List of awards and nominations YearResultAwardCategoryWorkRef.2022 NominatedAACTA AwardsBest Direction in Nonfiction TelevisionBooks That Made Us 2021 NominatedBest DocumentaryPlaying with Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story NominatedAustralian Writers' GuildDocumentary – Public Broadcast WonMinneapolis–Saint Paul International Film FestivalWorld Cinema – Documentary WonProvincetown International Film FestivalBest Documentary NominatedSundance Film FestivalWorld Cinema – Documentary 2017 NominatedCannes Film FestivalGolden EyeDavid Stratton: A Cinematic Life NominatedAWGIE AwardsBest DocumentaryStreets of Your Town 2009 NominatedLeo AwardsBest Documentary Program or SeriesThe Week the Women Went 2008 NominatedGemini AwardsBest Reality Program or Series

Filmography YearTitle Director Writer Producer Note 2024 Every Little Thing Documentary 2023 Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles Documentary 2021 Books That Made Us TV series 2021 Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth Documentary 2021 Playing with Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story Documentary 2019 The Pool 2 episodes 2018 Nolan – The Man and the Myth Documentary 2018 The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill 6 episodes 2017 David Stratton: A Cinematic Life 3 episodes 2016 Streets of Your Town Documentary 2015 Getting Frank Gehry Documentary 2015 Imagine TV series 2015 The Great Australian Race Riot Documentary 2013 Air Rescue 6 episodes 2012 Family Confidential 1 episode 2011 Seduction in the City Documentary 2009 Ultimate Engineering 1 episode 2008 The Week the Women Went 8 episodes 2007 National Geographic: Engineering the Impossible 1 episode 2006 The Blonde Mystique Documentary 2006 Warrior Empire: The Mughals of India Documentary 2004 Colonial House 2 episodes