Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Appalachian-based filmmaker who explores challenges in American society and its effects on people. She is the director of Recovery Boys and the Academy Award-nominated, Emmy-winning Heroin(e), which both explore America’s opioid crisis. Her film Tutwiler, an intimate look at motherhood inside one of America’s most notorious women’s prisons, aired on PBS America Reframed. Sheldon’s interactive documentary Hollow brought to life a post-industrial community online and received a Peabody Award and 3rd Prize in the World Press Photo Awards. She was named a 2021 Livingston Award Finalist, 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, 2018 USA Fellow by United States Artists, one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine, and received the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award from Chicken & Egg Pictures.