Sara Newens

Sara Newens

Director · Producer · Writer

Biography

Sara Newens is a Los-Angeles based filmmaker and Emmy-award winning editor who began her career working for CBS News in New York City. Her first documentary feature, Top Spin, was acquired by First Run Features and received rave reviews from the LA Times and Wall Street Journal during its festival run and theatrical release. She also served as Editor/Writer for Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s feature, On The Record, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and distributed by HBO Max. She recently completed a second collaboration with Dick and Ziering as Supervising Editor on the HBO documentary series Allen v. Farrow. She is also known for cutting several fiction shorts and co-editing the critically acclaimed indie feature Freeland, as well as directing and editing the award-winning documentary short, Footprint, featured in The New York Times Op-Docs series. A graduate of the MFA Documentary Film and Video Program at Stanford University, she continues to create original work through her production company Wild Pair Films, co-owned by Mina T. Son. Currently, they are developing their next feature entitled Racist Trees, which chronicles a historically Black neighborhood in Palm Springs fighting for the removal of a wall of trees that many residents believe were originally planted as a totem of segregation. In addition, she helms the LA chapter of Video Consortium, a global organization for nonfiction storytellers and video journalists.

Photo

Sara Newens 1

Representative Works

Freeland
Freeland
4.3
/ English
Top Spin
Top Spin
6.9
/ English
Are We Good?
Are We Good?
4.5
/ English
On the Record
On the Record
6.4
/ English
Gut Hack
Gut Hack
8.0
/ English
Top Spin
Top Spin
No Rating Yet
/ English
Racist Trees
Racist Trees
No Rating Yet
/ English
L.A. Roll
L.A. Roll
No Rating Yet
/ English
Roles We Play
Roles We Play
No Rating Yet
/ English
The Dark Side of a Hollywood Icon
The Dark Side of a Hollywood Icon
No Rating Yet
/ English
Now Return Us To Normal
Now Return Us To Normal
No Rating Yet
/ English

Awards and Honors

Critical Favorites

Freeland
2021Nominee

Career Highlight

Freeland

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
2025Nominee

Career Highlight

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore

Top Spin
2014Nominee

Best Director

Top Spin

Career Highlights

Are We Good?
2025Highlight

Career Highlight

Are We Good?

On the Record
2020Highlight

Career Highlight

On the Record

Video