Oren Jacoby
Director, producer and writer, also cinematographer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Oren Jacoby is a director and producer of documentary films, including Constantine's Sword (2008), "Sister Rose's Passion" (2005), The Shakespeare Sessions (2003), Stage on Screen: The Topdog Diaries (2002), The Beatles Revolution (2000), and Sam Shepard: Stalking Himself (1998). He was a co-producer of the PBS series The Irish in America: Long Journey Home (1998). Jacoby was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject for "Sister Rose's Passion" which also won Best Documentary Short Film at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. He has written, directed, and produced award-winning films for two decades. His filmmaking has been recognized by the American Film Institute, the MacArthur Foundation, ITVS, Britain’s Royal Television Society, and by AMPAS. His films have appeared on the BBC, HBO Cinemax, PBS, National Geographic, VH-1, NHK (Japan), as well as Nokia, Verizon, and Human Rights Watch websites. “The Topdog Diaries” about the 2002 Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, Suzan-Lori Parks, featured performances by Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright; “The Shakespeare Sessions” starred Kevin Kline, Cynthia Nixon, Liev Schreiber, and Charles S. Dutton. Jacoby also made: “Swingin’ with Duke”, starring Wynton Marsalis and “Master Thief” on the ‘art heist of the century’; and “Benny Goodman: Adventures in the Kingdom of Swing” for American Masters and “The Second Russian Revolution”, a behind the scenes investigation of the collapse of the USSR, called ‘the best BBC series of the decade’ by the London Independent. Jacoby also wrote, produced and directed “The Return Ticket”, adapted from a short story by Anton Chekhov; “Ghosts of the Bayou”; “Idols of the Game”, featuring Michael Jordan; He has won CINE Golden Eagles, the Royal Television Society (UK) journalism award, the MacArthur Golden Owl award, as well as grants from the American Film Institute, ITVS (The Independent Television Service) and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Jacoby has directed plays at Theater for the New City, the Williamstown Theater Festival, Ensemble Studio Theater, the West Bank Cafe and regional theaters, including new works by Richard Dresser, Quincy Long, and Franz Xavier Kroetz. He collaborated with Adrian Hall on an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men”, with songs by Randy Newman, at the Dallas Theater Center and Trinity Rep. His stage adaptation of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man was performed in a reading at the 2004 Tribeca Theater Festival, in a co-production with the Classical Theater of Harlem. He wrote the screenplay for “Shores of a Dream" and is co-author with Forrest Stone of the original screenplay “Tarzan Brown” for the Oxford Film Company. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Directing Program of the Yale School of Drama and is a native New Yorker. Tamar Jacoby, an American writer and academic, is his sister. Description above from the Wikipedia article Oren Jacoby, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Biography from TMDB.
- Director, producer and writer, also cinematographer
- 8 on MovieCove · 17 credits in all
What are Oren Jacoby's films like?
Across their 8 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Self and Society.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 7
A split, not a type: Light 4 · Serious 1 · Dark 2
Grounded 6 · Stylized 1 · Heightened 0
A split, not a type: Gentle 4 · Charged 2 · Intense 0
Steady 5 · Shifting 1 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 6 · Some laughs 1 · Funny 0
Slow burn 7 · Even-paced 0 · Relentless 0
Casual 3 · Engaged 4 · Full focus 0
A split, not a type: Easy watch 4 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 2
Resolved 6 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet5
- Ambiguous2
- Other1
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Oren Jacoby's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 6 of their 8 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (4).
Subscription and free streaming for Oren Jacoby's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
17 credits, 8 with a MovieCove page.
Top of the World (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2026)
This Is Not a Drill (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2025)
Midcredits score: 80th percentile of all films
Julia(2021)
Midcredits score: 92nd percentile of all films
Give My Regards to Broadway (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2020)
On Broadway(2019)
Midcredits score: 84th percentile of all films
Shadowman(2017)
Midcredits score: 81st percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 90th percentile of all films
Lafayette: The Lost Hero(2010)
Midcredits score: 94th percentile of all films
Constantine's Sword (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2008)
Sister Rose's Passion (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2004)
The Shakespeare Sessions (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2003)
Midcredits score: 73rd percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)The Beatles Revolution (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2000)
Midcredits score: 34th percentile of all shows (provisional, few ratings)
Benny Goodman - Adventures In The Kingdom Of Swing (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1993)
The Second Russian Revolution (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1991)
Career shape
A full career of 16 titles from 1991 to 2026.
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do Oren Jacoby's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 84th percentile, the median of all 7; across their 7 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 87th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up6
- 50th to 74th1
- 25th to 49th1
Shape of the crowd
4 of their 8 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved1
- Divisive3
- Crowd Pleaser4
Reviewers score the atmosphere 74/100 and the pacing 65/100 in their films, across 5 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Oren Jacoby work with?
People who share at least 2 of Oren Jacoby's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Joel Goodman shares the most, 4.
Directors
- Betsy WestShared titles: Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down (2022), Julia (2021), On Broadway (2019)See all 3 shared titles with Betsy West
- Julie CohenShared titles: Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down (2022), Julia (2021)See all 2 shared titles with Julie Cohen
Composers, cinematographers and editors
- Joel GoodmanShared titles: On Broadway (2019), Shadowman (2017), My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes (2014), Lafayette: The Lost Hero (2010)See all 4 shared titles with Joel Goodman
- Robert RichmanShared titles: On Broadway (2019), Shadowman (2017), My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes (2014)See all 3 shared titles with Robert Richman
- Abhay SofskyShared titles: On Broadway (2019), Shadowman (2017)See all 2 shared titles with Abhay Sofsky
- Buddy SquiresShared titles: On Broadway (2019), The Irish in America: Long Journey Home (1998)See all 2 shared titles with Buddy Squires
Producers
- Sam JinishianShared titles: Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down (2022), On Broadway (2019), Shadowman (2017)See all 3 shared titles with Sam Jinishian
- Elgin SmithShared titles: My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes (2014), Lafayette: The Lost Hero (2010), Stage on Screen: The Topdog Diaries (2002)See all 3 shared titles with Elgin Smith
- Abby LiebermanShared titles: Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down (2022), Julia (2021)See all 2 shared titles with Abby Lieberman
- Alexandra HannibalShared titles: Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down (2022), Julia (2021)See all 2 shared titles with Alexandra Hannibal