He produced, directed or wrote several award-winning documentaries such as Dealers among Dealers (1996), Killing Kasztner(2008), Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012, short-listed for Best Documentary Academy Award®), The World Before Her (2012, Best Documentary Feature, Tribeca Film Festival), Hooligan Sparrow (2016, short-listed for Best Documentary Academy Award®), Human Flow (2017, short-listed for Best Documentary Academy Award®), Ximei (2020, winner Movies that Matter Activist Award), Beijing Spring (2021, Amnesty Int’l/FIFA Jury Award), To Kill a Tiger (2024, nominated Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature).
These films were shown at the FIFDH Geneva, Movies That Matter, Venice Film Festival, Telluride, Tribeca, Traverse City, Toronto International Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival among others, and broadcast on PBS, BBC, UK Ch4, ARTE, Netflix, and Amazon.
Cohen also directed and wrote a nine-part series of short films on China’s leading contemporary artists in collaboration with Art Asia Pacific for which he is a contributing editor.
Crossing over from documentary to fiction, Cohen produced his first narrative feature, Little Death (2024), starring David Schwimmer, directed by Jack Begert, written by Dani Goffstein and Jack Begert. Produced alongside Psycho Films and Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures, Little Death (2024) premiered at the 40th Sundance Film Festival in 2024
SELECTED WRITINGS
The Mirrored Facades of Utopia Zhang Wang (AAP 67, 2010)
Shall we shake on it? Chinese Contemporary Art Market
(AAP 70, 2010)
Off the Page Li Xianting (AAP 71, 2010)
Scorching Sun of Tibet (AAP 72, 2011)
Portraits of Power Mao Xuhui (AAP 72, 2011)
Capitalizing on Communism (AAP 73, 2011)
A Horse Named Caveat (AAP 74, 2011)
Ai Weiwei, on the imprisonment and release
from jail (AAP 74, 2011)
Chollywood vs. Hollywood (AAP 75, 2011)
Out on a Limb Wang Keping (AAP 76, 2011)
Reasoning with Idols Wang Guangyi (AAP 77 and Skira Press, 2012)
Where I Work Ai Weiwei (AAP 83, 2013)
The Shadow of Laughter Yue Minjun (AAP 84, 2013)
Eternal Spring Ma Desheng (AAP 87, 2014)
Help Yan Pei Ming (AAP 87, 2014)
Buddha and Beer Kesang Lamdark (Rossi & Rossi, 2018)
Generation Fake: Ai Weiwei in LA (AAP, 2018)
China and the Golden Veins of Henan (Global Geneva 2019)
The Story of Chi Xiaoning and His Smuggled Camera (M+ Stories, 2020)
Covid-19: Is the Swiss government engaged in false news and not doing its job? (Global Geneva, 2020)
The Shame of John Calvin: Will “Black Lives Matter” force Switzerland to finally acknowledge its own history of human rights abusers? (Le News, Global Geneva, 2020)
The Democrats’ New Clothes (Global Geneva, 2020)
The Switzerland-China Agreement: the dangers of becoming Beijing’s security satellite (Global Geneva, WhoWhatWhy, 2021)
Filling the Void Kesang Lamdark (Skira Press 2021)
The Mirrored Facades of Utopia Zhang Wang (AAP 67, 2010)
Shall we shake on it? Chinese Contemporary Art Market
(AAP 70, 2010)
Off the Page Li Xianting (AAP 71, 2010)
Scorching Sun of Tibet (AAP 72, 2011)
Portraits of Power Mao Xuhui (AAP 72, 2011)
Capitalizing on Communism (AAP 73, 2011)
A Horse Named Caveat (AAP 74, 2011)
Ai Weiwei, on the imprisonment and release
from jail (AAP 74, 2011)
Chollywood vs. Hollywood (AAP 75, 2011)
Out on a Limb Wang Keping (AAP 76, 2011)
Reasoning with Idols Wang Guangyi (AAP 77 and Skira Press, 2012)
Where I Work Ai Weiwei (AAP 83, 2013)
The Shadow of Laughter Yue Minjun (AAP 84, 2013)
Eternal Spring Ma Desheng (AAP 87, 2014)
Help Yan Pei Ming (AAP 87, 2014)
Buddha and Beer Kesang Lamdark (Rossi & Rossi, 2018)
Generation Fake: Ai Weiwei in LA (AAP, 2018)
China and the Golden Veins of Henan (Global Geneva 2019)
The Story of Chi Xiaoning and His Smuggled Camera (M+ Stories, 2020)
Covid-19: Is the Swiss government engaged in false news and not doing its job? (Global Geneva, 2020)
The Shame of John Calvin: Will “Black Lives Matter” force Switzerland to finally acknowledge its own history of human rights abusers? (Le News, Global Geneva, 2020)
The Democrats’ New Clothes (Global Geneva, 2020)
The Switzerland-China Agreement: the dangers of becoming Beijing’s security satellite (Global Geneva, WhoWhatWhy, 2021)
Filling the Void Kesang Lamdark (Skira Press 2021)
Ai Weiwei’s Turandot (Global Geneva 2022)