About Lauren Finerman
Lauren Finerman is a film director and deeply emotional storyteller whose work touches issues of social justice and structural transformation through the queer and feminist lens. Lauren’s background as a professional dancer and circus performer informs her choreographic lens as a director, allowing movement between camera and talent to speak the unspoken.
Lauren’s film work has screened all over the world and garnered numerous awards. Her most recent film Flower, starring world-renowned ballerina Misty Copeland, premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, screened across Oscar-qualifying festivals, and was nominated for an NAACP Image award.
Her latest project, Breaking Life: Paris 2024, is an original documentary web series for the Olympic Channel about breakdancing becoming an Olympic sport. Lauren served as Showrunner and director on all four episodes of the series, which heightened her already huge desire for more episodic work.
Lauren is currently in production on the documentary Montaño, which chronicles not only the journey of Olympic medalist Alysia Montaño, but also the systematic gender and racial inequality in professional sports and its ties to feminism around the world. She is also filming Womxn Walk, a film that shines a light on the unique challenges women face in the prison industrial complex.
Prior to that, Lauren wrote and directed Paper Birds, which received multiple nominations and awards internationally, and the feature length script version has recently been optioned. Her latest short, a feminist thriller, Silhouette, was greenlit by indie film producers Vanishing Angle and Tidetivity Studios, and is expected to have a 2024 festival premiere.
Prior to her success as a director, Lauren got her film chops as a producer, most recently developing an untitled feature film with Tribeca Studios. In 2020, she executive produced the pilot This Isn’t Me, which was an official selection at SXSW and won Best Comedy Series at HBO’s Catalyst Festival. She credits her ability to tell rhythmic stories on the screen to her time as the in-house filmmaker for the New York City Ballet, where she worked on projects including Jody Lee Lipes’ feature film Ballet 422 (Tribeca Film Festival/Magnolia Pictures) and Sarah Jessica Parker’s series City.Ballet (AOL.ON).