Neel's first film,
Darkon, won the Audience Award at the
South by Southwest Film Festival and was acquired by
IFCtv. The film was optioned for narrative fiction re-make by
Paramount via
Plan B Entertainment, which was to be written by
John Hodgman. Neel's second film,
Alice Neel, was acquired by Art House Films and is currently airing on the
Sundance Channel. It won the Audience Award at the
Newport Beach Film Festival. His third film,
The Feature, premiered at the
Berlin International Film Festival in 2008 and won the New Visions Award at the
Copenhagen International Documentary Festival. It screened at
MOMA in 2009. Also that year, Neel co-directed
New World Order (2009) which was produced by
IFCtv. In 2012 Neel directed his first feature narrative film,
King Kelly and produced
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors (2013) that won the Special Jury Prize at the Tribecca Film Festival . == Filmography as director ==