Ellen Spiro (born 1968) is an American documentary filmmaker. Spiro is known for making humorous social issue films for national and international television broadcasts and theatrical release.
In 2010 Spiro directed a nationally broadcast NOW on PBS special Fixing the Future with on-camera host David Brancaccio who visits communities across America using innovative approaches to building prosperity in our new economy.
In 2007 she released Body of War (co-directed and co-produced with Phil Donahue). Body of War won Best Documentary of 2007 from the National Board of Review and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where it won an audience award. Spiro and Donahue were featured on a one-hour Bill Moyers Journal special discussing the film. Additionally, Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue received a 2007 nomination for Best Documentary from the Producer's Guild of America and were short-listed for an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary.
Spiro's other award-winning films have been shown broadcast on television worldwide on PBS, HBO, BBC, CBC and NHK and in the art world, including multiple screenings at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum Biennial exhibition.
Spiro was awarded The Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television’s Gracie Award for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Documentary for Troop 1500, and is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation Fellowship, a commendation from the Texas State Legislature (Senate Resolution 545) and is a two-time Rockefeller Fellowship recipient. Her works are housed in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Peabody Collection of The Paley Center for Media and the New York Public Library.