Sophie Barksdale project wins 2025 Heartland Emmy for Best Cultural Documentary!
The MMIW documentary ‘Who She Is’ was honored at this year’s Heartland Emmys, taking home the ‘Best Cultural Documentary’ Award. Sophie and her directing/producing partner Jordan Dresser were recipients, along with editor Kyle Nickoloff.
Twin River Studios is an end-to-end production house specializing in film and documentary.
Founded by Heartland Emmy-winning filmmaker Sophie Barksdale, and based in Lander, Wyoming, Twin River Studios has a mission to tell both fiction and documentary stories of remote, regional and rural America from within - drawing on local creative talent and amplifying narratives that are often overlooked, misrepresented or misunderstood.
In production:
‘Crossing the Threshold’
A documentary about serving your country and what happens when you come home.
In development:
‘Chomolungma’
A short narrative film set in the Mountain West, adapted from the play by M. Jones.
After losing her husband on a failed summit expedition to Mount Everest, a woman is confronted by her grief and what it means to be alive. A raw and intimate exploration of grief as a part of the natural world in our Mountain State and those we leave behind.
About:
Sophie Barksdale
Sophie Barksdale is a Heartland Emmy-winning filmmaker based in Lander, Wyoming. With two decades experience in the arts and film across the US, UK/Ireland and Australia, she is the founding director of Twin River Studios. Her previous films include ‘Before Wyoming' (2026), the Emmy-winning ‘Who She Is’ (2022), the Emmy-nominated ‘Home From School’ (2021), and the Emmy-nominated ‘The State of Equality’ (2018).