Frontline (stylized in all capital letters) is an investigative documentary program distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States.

In 2024, Frontline won its first Oscar at the 96th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature, 20 Days in Mariupol, made by a team of AP Ukrainian journalists.

The program publishes extended interview transcripts, in-depth chronologies, original essays, sidebar stories, related links and readings, and source documents including photographs and background research.

[8] A subsequent episode aired on October 9, 2012, and featured the same dual biography tracing the lives and careers of incumbent President Barack Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney.

In 2005, the Overseas Press Club of America gave the program its Edward R. Murrow Award for the best TV coverage of international events, citing producers David Fanning, Stephen Talbot, Sharon Tiller and Ken Dornstein.

The program broke new ground in 2007 by winning two Emmys; one of these was for a broadcast story, "Saddam's Road to Hell", and the other was for an online video, "Libya: Out of the Shadow".

"[20] Chris Barton of the Los Angeles Times wrote for the episode, "The Facebook Dilemma" that Frontline has a "well-earned reputation for unflinching, in-depth examinations of social issues and current events.

The films have focused on issues ranging from post-conviction DNA testing, the use of drug snitches and mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the plea system, and the use of eyewitness testimony.

In 1999, Frontline had produced this in-depth report about Osama bin Laden and the terrorist network that would come to be known as Al-Qaeda in the wake of the 1998 United States embassy bombings.

In 2003, Frontline and The New York Times joined forces on "A Dangerous Business", an investigation led by reporter Lowell Bergman into the cast iron pipe making industry and worker safety.

[25][26] Director Martin Smith has produced dozens of films for Frontline, and won both Emmy and Writers Guild of America awards.

His 2000 film Drug Wars was the winner of the Outstanding Background/Analysis of a Single Current Story Emmy and the George Foster Peabody Award.

[28] Other notable producers of multiple Frontline documentaries have included Sherry Jones, Marian Marzynski, Miri Navasky, Karen O'Connor, June Cross, Neil Docherty, Stephen Talbot, Raney Aronson-Rath, Rachel Dretzin,[29] James Jacoby[30] and Rick Young.