Jennifer Peedom

Jennifer Peedom
Jen Peedom
Born
Jennifer Peedom

Canberra
Alma materRMIT, Melbourne
OccupationsDirector, producer
Years active2000–present
SpouseMark Rogers
Websitewww.jenpeedom.com.au

Jennifer Peedom is an Australian filmmaker. She as written, directed, and produced feature-length documentary films, including Sherpa (2015) and Mountain (2017), as well as a number of TV series. She co-directed the 2021 feature documentary River, and her feature documentary about cave diving, Deeper, was released in 2025.

Early life and education

Jennifer Peedom was born in Canberra, Australia.[1][2]

She graduated with a Bachelor of Business (Honours) from RMIT in Melbourne in 1997.[3]

Career

Filmmaking

Peedom's feature documentary film Solo (co-directed with David Michôd) won the 2009 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary in Under One Hour. It also won the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award and the Australian Directors' Guild award, as well as six major awards at international film festivals.[3]

Her film Sherpa, which was filmed during the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche,[4][5][6] won the 2015 Grierson Award for Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival.[7] It premiered internationally at the Telluride Film Festival[8] and also screened at Toronto Film Festival[9] and received a BAFTA nomination in 2016 for Best Documentary.[10][11] The film was a collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and, screening in cinemas in 27 countries, became the highest-grossing non-IMAX Australian documentary.[1] In 2016 she returned to Everest to make an SBS Dateline special titled Everest's Sherpas: Forgotten Heroes of the Himalayas, focusing on the lives of the Sherpas who take tourists up the mountain.[12]

In 2017 Peedom directed Mountain, a collaboration the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) with script by Robert Macfarlane,[13] narrated by Willem Dafoe.[14] It screened theatrically in 27 countries and went on to become the highest grossing non-IMAX Australian documentary of all time[15] (as of 3 March 2022, third).[16] It won three AACTA Awards in 2018.[17]

In 2021 she co-directed, with Joseph Nizeti, River, a documentary about rivers with a similar scope and format as Mountain. The film is also written by Macfarlane, narrated by Dafoe, and accompanied by a soundtrack by the ACO.[15]

Her feature documentary about Richard "Harry" Harris, an Australian doctor and recreational cave diver who was largely responsible for rescuing a group of Thai boys stranded in a flooded cave in 2018, titled Deeper, was released in Australian cinemas on 30 October 2025,[18] after being selected for screening at SXSW in Austin, Texas.[2] Luke Buckmaster, writing in The Guardian, gave the film 3 out of stars, calling it "interesting but not exactly visually stunning", writing that it did not explain to the viewer why cave divers do what they do.[19] The diving magazine website InDepth wrote that the film "shines a rare and positive light on the sport", and was impressed by "the detailed incorporation of safety features".[20] X-Ray Mag called it "a visual and technical feast" for divers, but a somewhat detached view of the sport, that "does not fully penetrate the emotional or philosophical heart of its protagonist".[21]

Teaching

In 2012, Peedom lectured on documentary film at AFTRS.[3]

Awards and recognition

In 2004, Peedom was named NSW Young Telstra Business Woman of the Year.[3]

She was the winner of the inaugural David and Joan Williams Documentary Fellowship in 2011.[3]

Stranger Than Fiction

Peedom is co-founder, with producer Jo-Anne McGowan, of film production company Stranger Than Fiction. Producer Blayke Hoffman is also with the company as of 2024, which is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company has produced most of Peedom's films.[22]

Personal life

As of 2022 Peedom is married to stills photographer Mark Rogers, and they have two children.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b "ACO 2025: Meet director Jennifer Peedom". Australian Chamber Orchestra. Archived from the original on 12 November 2025. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  2. ^ a b "Jennifer Peedom". Festival Scope Pro. 30 January 2026. Archived from the original on 30 January 2026. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d e "CV". Jennifer Peedom. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  4. ^ Kay, Jeremy (16 September 2015). "Sherpa director: how I tackled Everest". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Utichi, Joe (24 November 2015). "'Sherpa' doc director Jennifer Peedom on filming through Everest tragedy & giving the sherpas a voice". Deadline Hollywood.
  6. ^ Brill, Karen (11 November 2015). "Watch: 'Sherpa' Director Jennifer Peedom on the Tragic Cost of Making a Movie on Mt. Everest (Exclusive)". Indiewire.com.
  7. ^ "59th BFI London Film Festival award winners". British Film Institute. 17 October 2015.
  8. ^ "'Sherpa' and 'Winter on Fire' Display Good Timing at Telluride Film Festival". The New York Times. 6 September 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  9. ^ Kay, Jeremy (16 September 2015). "Sherpa director: how I tackled Everest". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  10. ^ "2016 Film Documentary | BAFTA Awards". BAFTA Awards. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  11. ^ Nicholson, Laura (14 September 2015). "TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Peedom - 'Sherpa'". Women and Hollywood. Archived from the original on 9 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  12. ^ McGrane, Danielle (31 March 2016). "Canberra-born director Jennifer Peedom gives a voice to Everest's Sherpas". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 22 June 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  13. ^ Israel, Janine (13 June 2017). "Mountain review: a sublime rush of adrenaline and orchestral beauty from the director of Sherpa". The Guardian.
  14. ^ "Review: 'Mountain' Features Frightening Sights and Breathtaking Image". Nytimes.coms. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  15. ^ a b Jefferson, Dee (24 March 2022). "River: Australian documentary narrated by Willem Dafoe highlights the importance and precarity of rivers worldwide". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  16. ^ "All-time top 10 Australian documentaries at the box office, ranked by total reported gross Australian box office". Screen Australia. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  17. ^ "Winners & Nominees". AACTA. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  18. ^ Russell, Stephen A (25 October 2025). "Thai cave rescuer Richard Harris explores risk-taking in the film Deeper". ABC News. Archived from the original on 11 December 2025. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  19. ^ Buckmaster, Luke (29 October 2025). "Deeper review – extreme cave diving documentary offers drama but lacks a little oomph". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 16 November 2025. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  20. ^ Kas, Stratis (19 September 2025). ""Deeper" with Dr. Richard Harris: A Movie Review". InDEPTH. Archived from the original on 19 November 2025. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  21. ^ ""Deeper" Explores Cave-Diving Limits". X-Ray International Dive Magazine. 29 January 2026. Archived from the original on 30 January 2026. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  22. ^ "Home". Stranger Than Fiction. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  23. ^ Junker, Ute (25 March 2022). "'We were like magnets': The friends who bridged a 20-year age gap to fall in love". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
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