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OSCAR nominated Documentary Feature Film - 97th Academy Award, 2025
BAFTA Nominated 2025, Best Documentary
Director: Shiori Ito
Producers: Eric Nyari, Hanna Aqvilin, Shiori Ito
Camera: Hanna Aqvilin, Yuta Okamura, Shiori Ito, Yuichiro Otsuka
Editor: Ema Ryan Yamazaki
Sales: Dogwoof
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FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
Sundance Film Festival 2024 - World Cinema Documentary Competition
SXSW 2024
CPH:DOX 2024 - WINNER of Human:Rights Award
MoMA Doc Fortnight 2024
Hot Docs 2024
Hong Kong International Film Festival 2024
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PRESS
“Courageously candid. The film is remarkable... A standout of the World Cinema Documentary competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival… With its urgent personal perspective and taut legal-drama shaping, 'Black Box Diaries' will prove wholly riveting to viewers unacquainted with her name and story… Not just a compelling and sympathetic human subject but a genuinely artful and intuitive filmmaker."
– Guy Lodge, Variety
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Included in “The 10 Best Movies We Saw at Sundance”
“[A] bold documentary… A tough, harrowing work of self-portraiture in which it’s Ito’s own journalistic tenacity, as much as her personal determination and outrage, that leads her to go public with her story, despite enormous pressure to do the opposite. That she didn’t back down was a heroic act, one that will inspire many more.”
– Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
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“An extraordinary new documentary. Black Box Diaries is both a riveting account of heroism and journalism… A monument to her determination and sacrifice, as well as one of the best documentaries you’ll see all year."
– Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone
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Hot Docs Forum 2022
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Awarded IDA 2022 Enterprise Documentary Fund Production Grant
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Back in 2015, covering a political rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hanna is an Oscar nominee and BAFTA-nominated producer/director.
She spent several years at the British BAFTA-winning production company Archer’s Mark, serving as a producer on numerous award-winning films, including BEING A HUMAN PERSON, an intimate portrait of the world-renowned film director, Roy Andersson, and HOLD YOUR BREATH: THE ICE DIVE, which is currently streaming on Netflix.
Her producer credits include the BBC, Al Jazeera, Nat Geo, and Netflix, and prior to this, she worked as a reporter and camera op for the Swedish public broadcaster, SVT.
Hanna's projects often focus on portraits, social issues, women’s empowerment, and mental health, employing intimate and humanising storytelling.
She started shooting the feature documentary BLACK BOX DIARIES together with Shiori Ito in 2017, the film premiered at Sundance 2024 and won the Human: Rights Award at CPH:DOX 2024. The film is nominated for the Academy Awards, 2025.
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After producing and shooting several feature documentaries and directing short docs, Hanna is now directing her first feature documentary.
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HOLD YOUR BREATH: THE ICE DIVE (2022)
Directed by Ian Derry
Produced by Archer's Mark
Nominated for BAFTA 2023
Nominated for two EMMYS Outstanding Short Documentary 2023
Outstanding camera work 2023
NETFLIX
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BEING A HUMAN PERSON (2020)
Directed by Fred Scott
Produced by Archer's Mark
Longlisted for BAFTA 2021
Nominated at BIFA 2021 for Best Documentary
CURZON
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ROY ANDERSSON'S PEOPLE (2022)
Directed by Fred Scott
Produced by Archer's Mark
SVT KORTFILM
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JAPAN'S SECRET SHAME (2018)
Directed by Erica Jenkin
Produced by True Vision
Nominated Best International Current Affairs at the RTS Awards
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FAY PRESTO: QUEEN OF CLOSE-UP (short) (2017)
Directed and Produced by Hanna Aqvilin
Winner of Fastnet filmfestival
Nominated at Underwire Film Festival (BAFTA-recognized)
Nominated 'Best British Short' at Iris Prize Festival (BAFTA-recognised)
SKY ​
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QUALIFICATIONS
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Fellowship for One World Media 2019, UK
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Storyteller for @UNleashlab 2019 - The leading innovation lab for the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, in Shenzhen, China
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Master of Arts (M.A.) Documentary Film, with Distinction A+
University of the Arts London, UK
Bachelor of Journalism
Linnaeus University, Sweden
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