Biography

Pakistani-American filmmaker, Afia, loves pushing the boundaries of narrative storytelling. Her debut feature film DUKHTAR (Daughter) premiered at Toronto in 2014 becoming Pakistan's Official Submission for Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards®. The film has played to critical acclaim in over 20 countries to rave reviews and became the Critics' Pick (Village Voice) and the People Magazine's Pick of the Week. The film has won several awards including Audience Award for Best Feature at Creteil, Best World Feature at Sonoma, Best Director and Best Feature Film at South Asian International Film Festival.

Afia has been featured in the Variety, NYT, Indiewire, NPR, Huffington Post and Screen Daily. Variety says, "Nathaniel proves her mettle in a national industry where distaff directors are rare" with Indiewire labeling Dukhtar as "groundbreaking", New York Times calling it "exquisite" and LA Times billing it as a "gorgeous, suspenseful cinematic achievement".

Afia was nominated for a Gotham award (2013) and the Women Film Critics Circle award (2015) for the "Best Foreign Film by or About Women". She has won several other awards for her work including: Adrienne Shelly for Directors, Hubert Bals Fund, Sorfund, Netflix-WIF, NYSCA, NYFA, Hollywood Foreign Press Association grant.

Through her films, Afia explores pressing social justice issues of our times which a critic lauded as "a stunning, emotive work that takes to task oppressive patriarchy". Her award-winning short films premiered at Rotterdam, Montreal Film Festival and have been screened at several other festivals, museums and the Anthology Film Archives in New York. Her thesis film LONG AFTER... won the prestigious HBO Development award.

As an active member of the film community, Afia is a sought-after speaker at panels in the industry and juries. She has mentored several filmmakers through the Athena IRIS Screenwriting Lab and the IFP Narrative Lab. Afia's screenplay for DUKHTAR has been invited to the Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as part of their Permanent Core Collection.

Afia teaches screenwriting and directing at Temple University. Previously, she taught at Princeton University (Peter B. Lewis Fellow), Columbia University's Graduate Film Division and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
- IMDb mini biography by: Cinephile

Enrolled in the prestigious Master of Fine Arts in Film degree program at the Columbia University School of the Arts in New York City (September 2001)