Picture Credit: Venice Film Festival
Netflix has announced today that it has acquired Cover-Up, the latest documentary from Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, which is currently touring the festival circuit with a planned release later in 2025.
The film premiered out of Competition at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival before heading to Telluride and Toronto, where it received strong critical reviews. Upcoming stops include the New York Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival, setting the stage for a global Netflix release later this year.
Cover-Up is a high-stakes political thriller in documentary form. It charts the bold, controversial career of Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Through access to his notes, archival documents, and rare footage, the film exposes cycles of institutional violence and impunity within U.S. military and intelligence systems. It is both a portrait of a relentless reporter and a searing critique of power.
The documentary currently holds 100% on RottenTomatoes with reviews from outlets like The Wrap, which wrote that the documentary “truly comes alive when Poitras’ voice cuts in from offscreen, challenging Hersh’s claims and pressing him on his blind spots. That the documentary lacks the same clarity of purpose as some of the directors’ previous work is a minor quibble.”
Savina Petkova for The Film Stage concluded, “Cover-Up may as well be the most important American documentary of the year.”
As mentioned, directing the documentary are Laura Poitras, Academy Award winner for the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, and Mark Obenhaus, who won an Emmy for Steep.
In statements released by Netflix today, Laura Poitras said, “We are deeply proud to join forces with Netflix on the global release of Cover-Up. This is a film I’ve been wanting to make for over two decades … It is an honor to introduce younger generations—particularly young journalists—to Sy’s outsider muckraking reporting.”
Meanwhile, Mark Obenhaus said, “Cover-Up is about a remarkable Reporter, Seymour Hersh. Through him, the film speaks to the essential role of investigative journalism in holding the powerful accountable. Netflix, with its enormous domestic and global reach, is simply the best platform to release Cover-Up to the audience we think it deserves.”
Pictures courtesy of Netflix
More Details on Cover-Up
- Producers: Yoni Golijov, Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus, Olivia Streisand
- Executive Producers: Thomas MacWhirr, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Josh Braun, Nick Shumaker
- Running Time: 117 minutes
- Cinematography: Mia Cioffi Henry
- Editing: Amy Foote, Peter Bowman, Laura Poitras
- Music: Maya Shenfeld
- Production Companies: Praxis Films, Project Mockingbird, Plan B
