Esther Schapira (born January 23, 1961, in Frankfurt) is a German journalist and filmmaker, currently politics and society editor at the German public television network, the Hessischer Rundfunk.
Schapira is co-author of The Act of Alois Brunner, and producer of two award-winning documentaries, ' ("Three bullets and a dead child") (2002), about the death of Muhammad al-Durrah in Gaza in 2000, and ' ("The day Theo van Gogh was murdered") (2007), about the killing in 2004 of Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh. The latter won her and her co-producer, Kamil Taylan, a Prix Europa award. In 2009, she produced a second documentary about the death of al-Durrah, ' ("The Child, the Death, and the Truth").
Schapira completed her Abitur at the Frankfurt ' in 1982, and went on to study German and English language and literature, as well as theatre, film and television. She has been the politics and society editor at the German public television network, the , since 1995.
Schapira's awards include the ' (1987), the ' (1995), the German Critics Prize (1996), and the ' prize (2002). She won the first prize twice at the International Festival Law and Society in Moscow, for ' and '. In 2007, she won the Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal with Georg M. Hafner, and a commendation during Prix Europa for the Theo van Gogh documentary.