Sam Citron

Sam Citron graduated from Boston University where his 16mm comedy short film, Routine, was selected for the permanent archive and is screened annually for introductory film classes. Moving to Los Angeles after graduation, Sam landed assistant film editing jobs with Academy Award winning film editor Anne V. Coates and Academy Award nominee C. Timothy O'Meara. After working as first assistant film editor on two of his films, Academy Award nominated writer-director John Milius hired Sam to edit his Emmy winning mini-series, Rough Riders. Academy Award winning documentary director Davis Guggenheim hired Sam to edit on the feature documentary, The First Year, a winner of the Peabody Award, and then brought Sam in to do additional editing on Waiting for 'Superman', short listed for the Academy Awards and named Critic's Choice and National Board of Review best feature length documentary. Guggenheim also hired Sam to story produce, edit, and write President Obama's voice over for the Stewart family segment of American Stories, short films which were included in the president's infomercial during the 2008 campaign. Guggenheim hired Sam again in 2012 to edit on President Obama's re-election campaign film, The Road We've Traveled, which was screened at the Democratic National Convention. Multi-Emmy winning sports documentarian Jonathan Hock hired Sam to edit the American Film Institute (AFI) Film Festival Audience Award winning feature documentary, Through the Fire, as well as the Emmy nominated, The Streak. For ESPN's Emmy winning "30 for 30" documentary series, Hock hired Sam to do additional editing on Survive and Advance. More recently, Sam completed editing on the Emmy nominated ESPN "30 for 30" for Hock, Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies. Sam has also edited several feature length comedies including the Country/Western music mockumentary, Dill Scallion, a Slamdance Film Festival Jury Prize nominee and a stand out at the SXSW Film Festival where The Austin Herald American review recognized Sam's "...expert editing." Sam also edited the Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award winning hybrid comedy documentary, Last Man Running, about real life actor Rick Gomez and his pre-marital foray into the world of demolition derbies. Critics embraced it, "...seems to always cut on the right beat...an energetic panoply of color and black and white images...funny, seamlessly told and a great piece of entertainment for anyone interested in new experiences." Sam produced and directed the comedy short, In Transition, which was selected for the USA Comedy Shorts Program at the American Film Institute (AFI) International Film Festival. Although not accepted to the Sundance Film Festival, then festival programmer (now emeritus festival director), John Cooper, wrote on the notification letter, "I feel compelled to tell you how much I enjoyed your film. It was a breath of fresh air when it came on the screen - keep up the good work." Sam also directed the Emmy nominated sports documentary, Champions in Kentucky, about the Breeders' Cup Championship, for NBC, which the Daily Racing Forum called "one of the finest racing films we've ever seen." Sam teamed with acclaimed writer-director Maria Giese on her dogma-style update and feature film adaption of Nobel Prize winner Knute Hamsun's renowned novel, Hunger, which Sam edited and executive produced. One reviewer admired "the lovely pacing" while another proclaimed, "...the bracing austerity of the film...charging it with all the primitive beauty of an ancient Russian icon painting." This modern presentation of Hunger brought great pride to Hamsun's native Norway when it screened in Olso. The feature documentary, Tough Bond, about the disintegration of village life in rural Kenya and the subsequent urban populations of homeless children addicted to sniffing glue, which Sam edited and is an executive producer on, premiered in the competition at the Berlin International Film Festival and then went on to compete at Hot Docs and the Chicago International Film Festival. At that same time, the feature documentary, The Other Shore, about marathon swimmer Dyana Nyad and her attempts to swim from Cuba to Florida, which Sam edited on, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and played on Showtime. More recently, Sam was nominated for an Emmy for editing on the Showtime documentary series, Shut up and Dribble. He followed that up with editing on the Peabody Award winning and Emmy nominated Lifetime documentary series, Surviving R. Kelly. For Surviving R. Kelly, Sam was nominated for an American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie award. In 2020, Sam received a special invitation to join ACE.