Shane Boris

Shane Boris (born 1981) is an American film producer and writer. He is the founder of Cottage M, an independent production house. Boris was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for The Edge of Democracy at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020. In 2022, Boris produced two acclaimed documentaries, Fire of Love and Navalny, which both secured Oscar nominations, and made him the first producer since Walt Disney to be nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature in the same year.

Career Boris was born in Denver, Colorado. After graduating from Colorado Academy in 2000, he pursued studies in religion and politics at Oberlin College, followed by a master's degree in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.

Boris started work as a film producer with You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't in 2010, which was featured on multiple seasons of PBS's Independent Lens. His second feature, Fuck For Forest (2013) screened at various festivals including SXSW, winning Best Documentary at the Warsaw International Film Festival. In 2016, All These Sleepless Nights premiered at Sundance, earning Best Directing in the International Documentary Competition.

In 2019, two major themes emerged as focuses for Boris' film work: the sentience of non-human nature as well as anti-authoritarianism. With long time collaborator Sara Dosa, he produced The Seer and The Unseen, a magic realist documentary set in Iceland about invisible elves, financial collapse and the surprising power of belief. In 2020, Stray, a creative nonfiction film that follows the lives of stray dogs in the streets of Istanbul, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and went on to win several awards, as well as an Indie Spirit nomination.

Boris achieved significant recognition with the Oscar nominated The Edge of Democracy, a film that explored the complexities of democracy in Brazil. Boris received multiple nominations for The Last Cruise, an HBO documentary short chronicling the first outbreak of the coronavirus outside of China on the Diamond Princess cruise liner.

In 2023, Boris garnered dual Oscar nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. Fire of Love was acquired by National Geographic Films at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to screen in theaters all over the world, as well as in partnership with museums including The Louvre and MoMA. Simultaneously, Navalny, which was commissioned by CNN Films, won Best Documentary at the BAFTAs and at the 95th Academy Awards.

In addition to sharing producing and writing credits on Fire of Love, Boris was also a producer and contributing writer on King Coal, a documentary set in Appalachia. The film made its debut at Sundance and received nominations at the IDA and the 17th Cinema Eye Honors. Also in 2023, Boris wrote and produced Hollywoodgate, a documentary based in Berlin, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and then, one day later, its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.

Aside from producing, Boris has received an IDA award and Critics Choice nomination for writing, and has been a guest speaker at universities such as the Harvard Kennedy School and Columbia School of the Arts. Boris is also co-founder of Joon, a multidisciplinary incubator, and has worked as a strategist for non-profits, as a writing consultant for authors, and a song lyricist for musicians.

Filmography Producer Independent Lens, 1 episode - 2010 Elementary Cool - 2009 You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't - 2010 Fuck For Forest - 2013 Olmo and the Seagull - 2015 All These Sleepless Nights - 2016 Break - 2016 Walden: Life in the Woods - 2017 The Seer and the Unseen - 2019 The Edge of Democracy - 2019 Silent Rose - 2020 Stray - 2020 The Last Cruise - 2021 Fire of Love - 2022 Navalny - 2022 King Coal - 2023 Hollywoodgate - 2023 Time and Water - 2026 The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist - 2026

Executive Producer Band - 2022

Awards and nominations YearCategoryOrganizationFilmResult 2020 Documentary Peabody awards The Edge of Democracy 2020 Documentary Feature 92nd Academy Awards The Edge of Democracy 2023 Best Documentary British Academy Film Awards Fire of Love 2023 Best Documentary British Academy Film Awards Navalny 2023 Outstanding Nonfiction Feature Cinema Eye Honors Fire of Love 2023 Documentary Feature 95th Academy Awards Fire of Love 2023 Documentary Feature 95th Academy Awards Navalny 2023 Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures 34th Producers Guild of America AwardsNavalny 2023 Documentary Peabody awards Fire of Love