Doc NYC Audience Award Runner-Up 2025
The Big Cheese is the feature documentary debut of Sara Joe Wolansky, who left her position as a video producer at The New Yorker in 2022 to pursue the project. Produced by Deep Cut Media and edited by our Nick Weiss-Richmond, the film had its world premiere at Doc NYC on November 13, 2025, where it was named Audience Award Runner-Up.
The film follows a team of scrappy, passionate American cheesemongers led by Adam "Mr. Moo" Moskowitz — founder of the Cheesemonger Invitational — as they train and compete at the Mondial du Fromage, the biennial international cheesemongering competition held in Tours, France. The grand prize: taking the top title in a field dominated by European competitors who benefit from centuries of professional tradition and national institutional support.
Wolansky spent close to three years embedded with her subjects, following their personal lives and professional struggles alongside the competitive training. The result is a film with an outsized emotional pull — a story about passion, craft, community, and the particular American belief that scrappy ingenuity can beat the house.
"Sara Joe Wolansky's supremely witty and entertaining directorial debut is an instant artisanal classic." — Doc NYC — Jaie Laplante
"More thrilling and intense than you would expect a movie about cheese to be." — Film Threat
"An encouragement to viewers to find the thing they're passionate about. Bright, tangy, and bold." — Beyond the Cinerama Dome
"DOC NYC's 'The Big Cheese' Follows American Cheesemongers' Attempt to Earn International Respect." — Variety