The Last Spy

Katharina Otto-Bernstein is an award winning, two-time Emmy nominated filmmaker, writer and producer, who works in the United States and Germany.

Otto-Bernstein began her career as a journalist and columnist. She is the author of Absolute Wilson – The Biography of theater director Robert Wilson and has worked as dramaturge in theater and dance (Karole Armitage: Fables on Global Warming).

In 1999 she joined the Dean’s Council of Columbia School of the Arts and has served as chair since 2008. Under the aegis of Columbia Film School, Katharina Otto-Bernstein, and her team, have mentored over 80 Columbia film students in her Thesis-Mentorship program which she founded in 2014. In 2009 she received Columbia University Alumni Medal and in 2025 she was awarded Columbia’s John Jay Award for professional achievement.

A principle of Film Manufacturers Inc., she is the writer/director of the documentary feature The Last Spy, which opened to critical acclaim at the 2025 Munich IFF. The film scored a 9 out of 10 in the German Critics Review. Other directing credits include The Second Greatest Story Ever Told [starring Mira Sorvino and Malcolm McDowell], The Need for Speed, Coming Home, Beautopia (Sundance, Winner of Silver Hugo-Chicago IFF), and When Night falls over Moscow, the HBO documentary Absolute Wilson (Berlinale, Art Film of the Year –Art Basel).

Recently she served as a producer of Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire [Venice IFF 2025], of It’s A Sad Beautiful World [Venice IFF 2025], of Crossing the River [PBS 2025], of Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada (Cannes, 2024), and of Joyland (Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival, Winner of the Independent Spirit Award, Academy Award short-list 2023.

Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal is an internationally recognized expert on intelligence. From 2002-2005, Dr. Lowenthal served as the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis & Production and also as the Vice Chairman for Evaluation on the National Intelligence Council. During his tenure, Dr. Lowenthal oversaw the creation and implementation of the National Intelligence Priorities Framework (NIPF), which remains in use today. Prior to these duties, he served as Counselor to the Director of Central Intelligence.

Dr. Lowenthal was the Staff Director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 104th Congress (1995-97), where he directed the committee’s study on the future of the Intelligence Community, IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century. He also served in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), as both an office director and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and was the Senior Specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Dr. Lowenthal has written extensively on intelligence and national security issues, including ten books and over 100 articles or studies. His history of U.S. intelligence, Vigilance Is Not Enough, was published this year by Yale University Press. In 2017 he published The Future of Intelligence (Polity, 2017). His textbook, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy (Sage/CQ Press, 10th ed., 2025), has become the standard college and graduate school textbook on the subject. He has written three novels, Crispan Magicker (1979); and The Great God Pan and Jack Dawkins, The Artful Dodger (the latter two both Kindle e-books).