Irene Taylor is an Oscar-nominated, multiple-Emmy, duPont and Peabody-winning director and producer. Her most recent film Trees And Other Entanglements was released by HBO at the end of 2023 and explores of our human obsession with the arboreal world. In 2022, Irene won a Columbia-duPont Award for her tragic investigation into one of the most trusted institutions in America, Leave No Trace: A Hidden History of The Boy Scouts (Hulu). Premiering at Sundance 2019 and later nominated for Special Merit in Documentary Filmmaking at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards, Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements tells Irene's very personal story about her deaf son, her deaf father and Ludwig Van Beethoven, as he went deaf while composing his famous sonata. Irene began her documentary career in photojournalism. Her first feature documentary, Hear and Now, a documentary memoir about her deaf parents, won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2007, a Peabody and top awards at festivals around the world. It was also nominated by the Producers Guild of America in 2008 for Documentary of the Year. Her HBO true-crime documentary about two adolescent girls obsessed with an internet bogeyman, Beware the Slenderman, received nominations for an Emmy in 2017 and two Critics' Choice Awards, for Best Director and Best Documentary. Irene's additional credits include several theatrically-released short films, all with HBO. The Final Inch, about the global effort to eradicate polio, was nominated for an Academy award, multiple Emmys, and won the IDA's Pare Lorentz Award. After the 2010 Mexican Gulf oil spill, she followed the life of a single bird found coated in oil, and made Saving Pelican 895, which won an Emmy for its affecting music. Irene directed One Last Hug: Three Days At Grief Camp, which won the 2014 Prime Time Emmy for Best Children's Programming and in 2016 she released Open Your Eyes, about an aging couple living in the Himalayas determined to regain their sight. Irene's short opinion film on the impact of hearing technology and the human experience, Between Sound and Silence, was released by The New York Times Op-Docs. Irene's early career began in Kathmandu, Nepal, working as a Himalayan Mountain guide and author. Her book of photographic essays, Buddhas in Disguise, became the basis for her first documentary film, made in 1993 with UNICEF. She is a graduate of New York University and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and was a producer for CBS Sunday Morning in 1998-2001. Irene founded Vermilion Films in 2006 and is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Television Academy. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Biography from TMDB.
- June 15, 1970 (56)
- St. Louis, Missouri, United States
- Director and producer
- 7 on MovieCove · 14 credits in all
Known for
What are Irene Taylor's films like?
Across their 7 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Survival and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 6
Light 1 · Serious 1 · Dark 4
Grounded 5 · Stylized 1 · Heightened 0
Gentle 2 · Charged 2 · Intense 2
Steady 3 · Shifting 3 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 6 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 0
Slow burn 5 · Even-paced 1 · Relentless 0
Casual 1 · Engaged 5 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 1 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 4
Resolved 4 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
- Happy1
- Bittersweet2
- Tragic1
- Ambiguous3
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 Irene Taylor's films?
As of October 24, 2026, all 7 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on HBO Max (5).
Subscription and free streaming for Irene Taylor'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
14 credits, 7 with a MovieCove page; 1 appearance as themselves is hidden until asked for.
Midcredits score: 78th percentile of all films
I Am: Celine Dion(2024)
Midcredits score: 95th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 57th percentile of all films
Leave No Trace(2022)
Midcredits score: 74th percentile of all films
Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2019)
Homeless: The Soundtrack (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2018)
The Listening Project (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2018)
Beware the Slenderman(2016)
Midcredits score: 48th percentile of all films
Open Your Eyes (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2015)
Midcredits score: 97th percentile of all shows
One Last Hug (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2014)
Saving Pelican 895(2011)
Midcredits score: 88th percentile of all films
The Final Inch (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2009)
Hear and Now (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2007)
Career shape
A full career of 13 titles from 2007 to 2025.
Biggest box office
I Am: Celine Dion (2024)
Highest rated
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)
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
1 major award from 7 major nominations, 2007–2025.
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking
- Primetime Emmy, nominated · Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking
- Sundance award, nominated · Documentary
- Oscar, nominated · Best Documentary, Short Subject
- Producers Guild Award, nominated · Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
- Sundance award, won · Documentary
- Sundance award, nominated · Documentary
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 Irene Taylor's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 76th percentile, the median of all 6; across their 6 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 77th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up4
- 50th to 74th2
- 25th to 49th1
Shape of the crowd
2 of their 7 titles are Universally Loved.
- Universally Loved2
- Crowd Pleaser2
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed2
Reviewers score the atmosphere 66/100 and the pacing 38/100 in their films, across 4 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.
Is Irene Taylor's work okay for kids?
Across a limited sample of up to 3 MovieCove titles with content scores.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted.
Who does Irene Taylor work with?
People who share at least 2 of Irene Taylor's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Nick Midwig shares the most, 5.
Cinematographers and editors
- Nick MidwigShared titles: Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie (2025), I Am: Celine Dion (2024), Trees, and Other Entanglements (2023), Leave No Trace (2022), Beware the Slenderman (2016)See all 5 shared titles with Nick Midwig
- Peter HutchensShared titles: Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie (2025), Leave No Trace (2022)See all 2 shared titles with Peter Hutchens
- Christian JensenShared titles: I Am: Celine Dion (2024), Trees, and Other Entanglements (2023)See all 2 shared titles with Christian Jensen
- Jody McVeigh-SchultzShared titles: Trees, and Other Entanglements (2023), Leave No Trace (2022)See all 2 shared titles with Jody McVeigh-Schultz
Producers
- Ilana SolShared titles: Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie (2025), Trees, and Other Entanglements (2023), Leave No Trace (2022)See all 3 shared titles with Ilana Sol
- Lauren MuellerShared titles: Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie (2025), Trees, and Other Entanglements (2023), Leave No Trace (2022)See all 3 shared titles with Lauren Mueller
- Lisa HellerShared titles: Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie (2025), Trees, and Other Entanglements (2023), The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)See all 3 shared titles with Lisa Heller
- Nancy AbrahamShared titles: Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie (2025), Trees, and Other Entanglements (2023), The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)See all 3 shared titles with Nancy Abraham
Mixed roles
- Peter RichardsonShared titles: Trees, and Other Entanglements (2023), Saving Pelican 895 (2011)See all 2 shared titles with Peter Richardson