Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bruce Sinofsky died early Saturday morning in his sleep after a long battle with the complications of diabetes, his frequent collaborator Joe Berlinger told Variety. He was 58.
Sinofsky covered a range of topics in his career -- from heavy metal to murder cases.
He is best known for the the "Paradise Lost" Trilogy, a series of films he made with Berlinger about the West Memphis Three, a group of teenagers convicted of murdering and sexual mutilating three prepubescent boys despite a lack of evidence. Prosecutors claimed the children were killed as part of a Satanic court ritual. Those films helped draw attention to a number of miscarriages of justice associated with their trial and conviction. Public pressure resulted in the Arkansas Supreme Court allowing the three men -- Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin -- to be released after serving 18 years and 78 days in prison. Sinofsky was nominated for an Oscar for 2011's "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory."
He also won an Emmy for co-directing 1996's "Paradise Lost" and a Director's Guild Award for teaming with Berlinger on 1992's "Brother's Keeper," which looked at an elderly man accused of second-degree murder.
Music was also a passion of Sinofsky's as evidenced by his work on "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" and "Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records" for PBS/American Masters.
Other credits include episodes of the Sundance Channel series "Iconoclasts," an installment of The History Channel's "10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America," "Oprah's Master Class: Civil Rights Special" and numerous other film and television projects.
Sinofsky also won a Peabody, an Independent Spirit Award, and accolades from the Sundance Film Festival.
A memorial service will be held in March.
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