Sonya Pemberton

Sonya Pemberton is one of Australia’s leading documentary filmmakers; an Emmy Award recipient and record-breaking five-time winner of the prestigious Eureka Prize for Science Journalism. Her passion is creating quality science documentaries for international audiences. Sonya has written, directed and produced over 60 hours of broadcast documentary, her films winning over 70 international awards. As a writer and director, her films include the critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning feature length specials 'VITAMANIA' (SBS, ARTE, CuriosityStream) and 'Jabbed: Love, Fear and Vaccines' (SBS, ARTE) followed by 'Vaccines-Calling the Shots' (PBS NOVA) in the USA. The multi award-winning film 'Catching Cancer' was an expose of viruses causing cancer and her film 'Immortal', which featured the work of Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, won the 2012 Emmy award for Outstanding Science programming amongst many other international awards. Sonya has also executive-produced many award-winning factual series and one-off programs, including the 2015 global science-history series 'Uranium: Twisting The Dragon’s Tail' for SBS, PBS and ZDF/ARTE and 'CRUDE – the incredible journey of oil' with Dr Richard Smith. Previously Head of Specialist Factual at ABC Television, Sonya commissioned and managed over three hundred hours of factual television; her understanding of audiences’ desire for smart, accessible television saw ratings rise across the genres. Sonya has been honoured with Australian Health Journalist of the Year in 2011 and 2013, the 2014 Thornett Award for the Promotion of Reason, the Jill Robb Award in 2015, and in 2016 she received the Stanley Hawes Award for contribution to documentary.