Allison Otto is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and visual journalist.
Her first feature documentary, The Thief Collector, premiered in the Documentary Feature Competition at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival. The film was nominated for a 2023 Critics Choice Award for Best First Feature Documentary and Best True Crime Documentary. Variety magazine hailed The Thief Collector as “a nimble and entertaining dissection of a crime” and a film “that builds to a supreme moment of ‘Oh. My. God.’” Additional festival screenings included the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Hot Docs, the SFFILM festival, Hot Springs, the Woods Hole Film Festival, and Telluride Mountainfilm. The Thief Collector is streaming on Amazon.
Allison’s documentary short, The Love Bugs (2019), was awarded Outstanding Short Documentary in the 42nd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards after screening on POV Shorts Season 3 (2020). The film was also shortlisted for a 2019 International Documentary Association Award and was longlisted for an Oscar in the Documentary Short category. Allison is also a 2019 recipient of the SFFILM Catapult Film Fellowship, a 2018 and 2011 Telluride Mountainfilm Commitment grant recipient, and a 2018 Roy W. Dean grant winner.
Her journalism clients have included National Geographic, BBC America, NBC, the Sierra Club, Travel Channel, Atlas Obscura, and Lonely Planet. Allison’s exclusive story of the discovery of a new invertebrate species was selected by National Geographic as one of their “Ten Best First-of-their-Kind” stories of 2016.
Her first film, Keeper of the Mountains, screened more than 500 times in 32 countries with a special screening at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
Allison graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in Communications and a master’s degree in Sociology.
She is represented by Sydney Kobil at WME and Adam Gelvan at Octagon.
AWARDS & HONORS
PRESS, PANELS, & INTERVIEWS
2023 The Thief Collector, Best Director Award, Bar Harbor Film Festival
2022 The Thief Collector, Santa Fe International Film Festival Juried Honorable Mention
2022 SXSW The Thief Collector, Documentary Competition
2022 HotDocs The Thief Collector: Artscapes Competition
2021 Emmy Winner for Best Short Documentary: The Love Bugs
2021 IDA Awards: POV Shorts season 3, Best Shortform Series included The Love Bugs
2020-2021 American Film Showcase selection: The Love Bugs
2020 Jury: International Wildlife Film Festival: Best Short Film, The Love Bugs
2020 Jury: NYWild Film Festival: Best Short Documentary, The Love Bugs
2020 Jury: EarthX: Best Short, The Love Bugs
2020 Jury: Indy Film Festival: Best Documentary, The Love Bugs
2020 Audience Choice: Indy Film Festival: Best Short Documentary, The Love Bugs
2020 Jury: All Living Things Environmental Film Festival: Best International Short, The Love Bugs
2020: DC Environmental Film Festival: Finalist for the Eric Moe Award for Best Short on Sustainability, The Love Bugs
2019: SFFILM Catapult Film Fellowship recipient
2019 International Documentary Association Shortlist for Best Documentary Short, The Love Bugs
2019 Jury: Napa Valley International Film Festival: Best Short Documentary (The Love Bugs)
2019 Audience Choice: Aspen Mountainfilm: Best Short Film, The Love Bugs
2019 Audience Choice: Port Townsend Film Festival: Best Short Documentary, The Love Bugs
2019 Audience Choice: Woods Hole Film Festival: Best Short Documentary, The Love Bugs
2019 Audience Choice: Sidewalk Film Festival: Best Short Documentary, The Love Bugs
2019 Audience Choice: Indie Memphis: Best Short Documentary, The Love Bugs
2018 Mountainfilm Commitment Grant Recipient
2018 Roy W. Dean From The Heart Productions Grant Recipient
2016 National Geographic’s Ten Best First-Of-Their-Kind Videos for directing/filming exclusive digital documentary content of a new species
2016 Port Townsend International Film Festival Jury Award for Best Short, Short Documentary (PROPERTY)
2016 Woods Hole Film Festival Jury Award 1st Runner Up for Best Short Documentary (PROPERTY)
2015 No Man’s Land Film Festival Audience Choice Award (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2014 POV Hackathon 5 Selection
2014 Bansko Mountain Film Festival Special Jury Award (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2014 Sheffield Adventure Film Festival Special Mention (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2014 Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival Special Jury Commendation (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 Banff Mountain Film Festival Special Jury Mention (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 Outside Magazine’s Ten Best Adventure Films of 2013 (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 The Poprad, Slovakia International Mountain Film Festival Prize for Mountain History Filming (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 Port Townsend International Film Festival Special Jury Commendation (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 DocuWest Documentary Film Festival Best Short Film (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 Rocky Spirit Festival Sao Paolo Brazil, Best International Film (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 FilmStock Colorado Best of Fest, Best Director, Audience Choice awards (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 Lighthouse International Film Festival Audience Choice award for Best Short Film (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2011 Telluride Mountainfilm Commitment Grant Recipient
2023 Alliance of Women Film Journalists
2022 Fox10 Phoenix, The Splashiest Films Out of SXSW
2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival Film Talk Series
2019 WYPR, the NPR affiliate in Baltimore, MD.
2019 REALSCREEN SFFILM Catapult Film Fellowship Recipients
2019 Entomology Today
2019 Woods Hole Film Festival Documentary Filmmaking Panelist
2017 San Francisco Green Film Festival panelist: “How Do You Tell Your Story In 3 Minutes?”
2017 Storyhunter Blog interview
2017 Sierra Club Rocky Mountain Chapter Storytelling Mentor
2016 Bend Film Festival Film Fatales Panelist
2016 ScreenUp NYC visual journalism panelist
2016 Women in Film and Media Colorado Panelist: Producing the Documentary
2016 Career Girls Inc. Role Model Interviewee for her career in Cinematography/Directing
2015-2016 Frauenmuseum Hittisau, Austria Curated Exhibition “Ich, am Gipfel. Eine Frauenalpinegeschichte” (KEEPER OF THE MOUNTAINS)
2013 Crested Butte Film Festival Filmmaker Panelist
2013 Boulder International Film Festival Women in Film Panelist