André Singer
Award-winning documentary filmmaker and producer André Singer was internationally recognized in 2014 with the release of his powerful World War II doc, "Night Will Fall." Born and raised in England, Singer initially intended upon becoming an academic. He attended Oxford University in the 1970s, where he did his doctoral studies on the nations of Afghanistan and Iran. However, after a change of heart, Singer abruptly left the university and decided to become a TV producer. In the late 1970s, he started producing documentaries for the British current events program "World in Action" (ITV, 1963-1968), and by the 1980s was working as a producer on various documentaries for the British production company Granada Television. Then in 1992 Singer began working with the prolific filmmaker Werner Herzog, and over the next two decades would executive produce several of Herzog's films, including "My Best Fiend" (1995) and "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" (1998). Singer had a brush with Hollywood prestige in 2002 after he co-executive produced the acclaimed holocaust documentary "Prisoner of Paradise" (2002). That film would go on to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Singer continued executive producing TV and film documentaries throughout the 2000s, scoring another hit in 2003 with the acclaimed chess doc, "Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine," before achieving his greatest success with 2014's "Night Will Fall." Filmed during the final days of World War II, the documentary was indefinitely shelved by the British government and remained unseen for nearly 70 years. Singer was instrumental in restoring the footage and bringing it to light. "Night Will Fall" was also notable on account of the fact that legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, was a part of the original 1945 team that helped make the film, shooting some of the only existing footage filmed at Auschwitz. "Night Will Fall" was broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and HBO in America, and received overwhelmingly positive praise upon its release in early 2015.