Orlando von Einsiedel

Orlando von Einsiedel^[1] (born in August 1980)^[2] is a British film director and producer, and co-founder of film production company Grain Media.He directs mostly documentary films that investigate global social issues, and has filmed in various places around the world, including Africa, Asia, America and the Arctic.

He has been nominated for two Academy Awards, winning one, a BAFTA, several Primetime and News and Documentary Emmys, and has won a Peabody, an Alfred I.duPont–Columbia University Award^[3] for journalistic excellence and a British Independent Film Award.^[2]

Von Einsiedel became known for his award winning film Virunga,^[4] produced with the cooperation of Virunga National Park director Prince de Merode. The film has been credited with helping to end oil exploration within the park.^[5]

Von Einsiedel’s other most well-known films are The White Helmets, Evelyn, Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl), Los Niños Perdidos / The Lost Children and Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy.

Von Einsiedel is the grandson of Wittgo von Einsiedel (a second cousin to Heinrich Graf von Einsiedel, who descends from Otto von Bismarck) and Walburga von Obersdorff.^[1] His father, Andreas Jean-Paul von Einsiedel, was a photographer specialising in architecture and interiors.^[6] Von Einsiedel grew up in Forest Hill, London, with his mother (Harriet), a British music therapist. He attended Alleyn's, an independent school in East Dulwich, London.^[7]

Von Einsiedel studied social anthropology at the University of Manchester^[5] and an MSc in anthropology and development at the London School of Economics.^[8]

Von Einsiedel began his filmmaking career making snowboard films^[9] before moving into documentaries. Many of von Einsiedel's documentaries have been screened at the worlds top film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Von Einsiedel directed Virunga (2014)^[10], which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature, and The White Helmets (2016), which won for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Both nominations were shared with producer Joanna Natasegara.^{[11][4][12][13]} His 2018 film, Evelyn, about his late brother, launched at the London Film Festival^[14] and won the BIFA for Best Documentary.^[3] In 2020, Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you're a girl), a film he was an executive producer on, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).^[15] In 2006,In 2024 he released Los Niños Perdidos / The Lost Children.^[16] The film was nominated for a Premios Platino Award^[17] and was one of the most watched documentaries on Netflix in 2024.^[18]

In 2006, he co-founded Grain Media, an award-winning film production company based in London which he runs.^[19]

Von Einsiedel spent several years as a professional snowboarder,^[20][7][21] travelling the world promoting the brand names of various sponsors through media engagements, photo/video shoots and competitions. During this period, he was given the nickname 'Jill Dando', due to the rhyme connection between his name and hers.^[7]

• Orlando von Einsiedel at IMDb