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.
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Biography from TMDB.
- Editor, director and writer
- 10 on MovieCove · 17 credits in all
What are Sara Newens' films like?
Across their 9 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Society and Self.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 6
A split, not a type: Light 1 · Serious 2 · Dark 3
Grounded 6 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 0
Gentle 1 · Charged 3 · Intense 2
Steady 4 · Shifting 1 · Whiplash 1
Straight-faced 5 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 1
Slow burn 4 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 0
Casual 1 · Engaged 5 · Full focus 0
A split, not a type: Easy watch 1 · Affecting 2 · Heavy 3
Resolved 2 · Open-ended 3 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
- Happy1
- Bittersweet4
- Ambiguous3
- 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 Sara Newens' films?
As of October 24, 2026, 8 of their 10 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.
Subscription and free streaming for Sara Newens' 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, 10 with a MovieCove page.
Are We Good?(2025)
Midcredits score: 83rd percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 94th percentile of all films
The White House Effect(2024)
Midcredits score: 83rd percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 75th percentile of all shows
Racist Trees(2022)
Midcredits score: 79th percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
The Dark Side of a Hollywood Icon (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2022)
Freeland(2020)
Midcredits score: 42nd percentile of all films
Allen v. Farrow(2021)
Midcredits score: 30th percentile of all showsL.A. Roll (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2020)
On the Record(2020)
Midcredits score: 83rd percentile of all films
Roles We Play (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2018)
Flint Town(2018)
Midcredits score: 83rd percentile of all shows
Gut Hack (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2017)
Family Party(2015)
Midcredits score: 8th percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
Top Spin (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2014)
Top Spin (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2010)
Now Return Us To Normal (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Career shape
A full career of 14 titles, 13 of them dated from 2010 to 2025.
Biggest box office
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025)
Highest rated
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025)
Most popular right now
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (2023)
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.
Awards
2 major nominations and no wins, 2021–2023.
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Sara Newens' films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 83rd percentile, the median of all 7; across their 6 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 83rd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up7
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
5 of their 10 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Cult Classic1
- Crowd Pleaser5
- Mixed4
Reviewers score the pacing 49/100 in their films, across 4 reviewed titles; fans 58, detractors 30. The element that speaks to their work as an editor.
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 Sara Newens work with?
People who share at least 2 of Sara Newens' MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Geralyn White Dreyfous shares the most, 4.
Directors
- Amy ZieringShared titles: Allen v. Farrow (2021), On the Record (2020)See all 2 shared titles with Amy Ziering
- Kirby DickShared titles: Allen v. Farrow (2021), On the Record (2020)See all 2 shared titles with Kirby Dick
Composers and cinematographers
- William Ryan FritchShared titles: Racist Trees (2022), Freeland (2020)See all 2 shared titles with William Ryan Fritch
- Thaddeus WadleighShared titles: Allen v. Farrow (2021), On the Record (2020)See all 2 shared titles with Thaddeus Wadleigh
Producers
- Geralyn White DreyfousShared titles: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025), The White House Effect (2024), Allen v. Farrow (2021), On the Record (2020)See all 4 shared titles with Geralyn White Dreyfous
- Jenny RaskinShared titles: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025), The White House Effect (2024), Allen v. Farrow (2021), On the Record (2020)See all 4 shared titles with Jenny Raskin
- Adam LewisShared titles: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025), The White House Effect (2024), On the Record (2020)See all 3 shared titles with Adam Lewis
- Ann LovellShared titles: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025), Allen v. Farrow (2021), On the Record (2020)See all 3 shared titles with Ann Lovell
Mixed roles
- Jon ShenkShared titles: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025), The White House Effect (2024)See all 2 shared titles with Jon Shenk
