Bryan Fogel–whose Icarus (Netflix) won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2018–has joined the directorial roster of Hungry Man for commercials and branded content.
Recipient of a Special Jury Prize for documentary filmmaking at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Icarus unfolds like a kind of hybrid documentary/geopolitical thriller, exposing Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program through revelations from Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, a scientist at the center of that cheating scandal and a prime whistleblowing target of Russian President Vladimir Putin. On the strength of Icarus–which contributed to Russia’s ban from the 2018 Winter Olympics and 2020’s Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act–Fogel garnered the Edward R. Murrow Award for Journalism, was nominated for a BAFTA Award, three Emmys, and the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary.
Fogel’s latest documentary is The Dissident which too is a unique documentary thriller and a rebuke of authoritarian power. The film delves into the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 2, 2018. With a mix of never-before-seen footage and unprecedented access to those closest to the story–including Khashoggi’s fiance Hatice Cengiz, Turkish police and prosecutors, and a young Saudi Arabian dissident, Omar Abdulazia, whom Khashoggi was working with–Fogel’s film chronicles the heinous murder of Khashoggi, a principled reformer who sought to create a more just and open society in his Saudi homeland. Evidence points directly to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon as being culpable but he has orchestrated an international cover-up fueled by wealth, tyranny and advanced technology. The Dissident went on to earn a BAFTA Award nomination and wound up winning a Writers Guild Award.
Fogel had earlier in his career been repped in the ad arena via production house Supply & Demand. The alluded to three Emmy nominations he earned in 2018 on the basis of Icarus were for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, and Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program.
Fogel is currently in production on both scripted and documentary features and series.