CNN Films

Company type	Division
Industry	Motion picture Film distribution
Founded	2012; 13 years ago (2012)
Headquarters	United States
Products	Films
Owner	Warner Bros. Discovery
Parent	CNN
Website	cnn.com/cnnfilms

Cable News Network Films (known asCNN Films) is a motion picturedivision ofCNN underWarner Bros. Pictures, originally launched in 2012.^[1] Its first film,Girl Rising premiered in spring 2013 in the United States.^[2][3]

On October 8, 2012, CNN announced the creation of CNN Films. CNN says that it will acquire and commission original feature-length documentaries that will "examine an array of political, social, and economic subject matters." It also signed development deals with documentary directorsAlex Gibney andAndrew Rossi.^[4][5] Since its creation, it already acquired the rights forGirl Rising, a 100-minute documentary narrated byMeryl Streep,Anne Hathaway,Kerry Washington, andSelena Gomez.^[6]

While the documentaries will initially air on CNN, the network reportedly plans to enter them in film festivals and distribute them to theaters as well.

At the2013 Sundance Film Festival, CNN announced the acquisition of three documentaries. It acquired the rights to airLife Itself, a film adaptation ofRoger Ebert's 2011 memoir, in television. The project will be directed bySteve James and executive produced byMartin Scorsese andSteven Zaillian. It is scheduled to air in 2014.^[7] The two other untitled projects are expected to air on CNN in 2013. One, from directorsMichael Tucker and Petra Epperleini, centers on9/11 and reconstructs the events atGround Zero; the other, from directorAndrew Rossi, focuses on the transformation of higher education, examining the costs and relevance of college.^[8]

CNN Films bought the television rights ofEscape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare which premiered on March 10, 2013, on CNN. The film was directed byMatthew Heineman andSusan Froemke. The film premiered on January 19, 2012, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released on October 5, 2012.^[9][10]

CNN Films acquired Penny Lane'sOur Nixon, and CNN premiered the film in August 2013, whileCinedigm released it theatrically.^[11][12][13] The network has also then acquired the domestic television broadcast rights of the Sundance film selectionRobert Stone'sPandora's Promise and aired it on CNN in November 2013 while it was theatrically released five months before.^[14][15]

On December 10, 2020, CNN Films teamed up with theBBC to produce a documentary about the development and manufacturing of vaccines for theCOVID-19 pandemic. The documentary that is not a film is produced by British virologist-turned-filmmaker Catherine Gale who also directs with American independent filmmaker and medical journalist Caleb Hellerman, and will air in 2021 on CNN in the United States under the titleRace for the Vaccine andBBC Two in theUnited Kingdom under the titleVaccine: The Inside Story.^[16]

• Official website
• CNN Films onTwitter

• CNN
• CNN Films films
• Film distributors of the United States
• Film production companies of the United States
• American companies established in 2012
• Mass media companies established in 2012

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from March 2014