NYWIFT Blog

By Farah Qureshi

Welcome to NYWIFT, Nadia Voukitchevitch!

Nadia is an award-winning filmmaker with over two decades of experience across film, television, and branded content. She is the founder Nadia Films, a creative content production company and boutique agency that produces globally focused, multicultural, and multilingual work across media.

Through Nadia Films and its newly launched division, The Creative Collective, Nadia brings together collaborative teams of creators to craft meaningful, commercially viable work rooted in powerful storytelling. Her projects often intersect with social impact, advocacy, and cultural history, reflecting a deep commitment to human rights, women’s voices, and education-driven narratives.

In our interview, she reflects on her filmmaking journey, the responsibility of telling stories rooted in lived experience, and the projects she’s most excited to bring to life next.

NYWIFT Member Nadia Voukitchevitch

Welcome to NYWIFT! Could you give our readers a brief introduction to yourself?

Thank you for welcoming me! I’m a director, producer, writer, filmmaker, and poet who has been working in film, television, and advertising-branded content for over 20 years. I’m the Founder of The Creative Collective, a division of my small independent branding company, Nadia Films.

I’m from New York originally and spent the last 25 years in Los Angeles, and glad to be back in my hometown.

What brought you to NYWIFT?

I was born here in Murray Hill, and [first] became a member in the late ‘90s when I graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. My film professor, Abigail Child, was also a member of NYWIFT.

I’m also a member of Women in Media, Women in Film LA, National Association of Latino Independent Producers, International Documentary Association, Hollywood Professional Association, and others that you are affiliated with.

Nadia Voukitchevitch on set

What initially drew you to filmmaking and storytelling, and how did your early exposure to art, travel, and performance shape your creative path?

I was initially drawn by watching the old Hollywood classics, like Citizen Kane, Grand Hotel, and Notorious, when I lived in a very tiny town in the South of Spain, where I organized my parents’ huge library of Super VHS and Betamax tapes. I was so captivated by the wardrobe, set designs, and the ability to be transported into a whole different world through the art of cinema. Then at age 12 I told my father I wanted to be a director and move back to New York to study filmmaking.

My parents were both very heavily into the arts, as they were both artists, painters, and poets. My mom is a concert pianist and ran several art galleries in Soho dating back to the ‘70s, and my father was one of the original advertising men in Mad Men. My father’s ancestors compiled an entire collection of art called Hohenbuchau, named after my great-great-grandfather’s castle that he built for his beloved wife and four daughters. They owned Canalettos and many other incredible pieces of art that were stolen and confiscated by the Nazis during the war and are now mostly in the Getty Villa or the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna under the Princely Collection.

Nadia Voukitchevitch on set of her documentary series, Powerful & Inspiring Asian Women

You spent many years producing award-winning commercial work before transitioning more fully into directing. What motivated that shift, and how did you know it was the right time to step into that role?

Well, I had always wanted to direct. Even in high school and college, I was directing, producing and editing my own films as well as writing them.

I stumbled upon commercials as a way of survival straight out of college and to pay my rent, bills, and student loans. I recall being called a “sell-out” by other fellow filmmakers from NYU when they saw me doing commercial work—until their savings were up and they would come begging me for a job as a production assistant on one of my film sets.

So more than a shift, I would call it coming back full circle, which life tends to do all on its own when you go too far off path. After a while, you get stuck in a rut when you are doing something that you are not passionate about.

While I enjoy producing and am very good at it—I’m often called to do the impossible deadline jobs—my happy place is when I’m directing, especially work that I’ve written and researched, and material that is dear to my heart and has significant meaning to me.

Nadia Voukitchevitch on set

Your work often intersects with social impact, including documentaries and PSAs focused on homelessness, immigration, and women’s rights. What responsibility do you feel as a filmmaker when telling stories rooted in advocacy and real-world issues?

It’s a huge responsibility when you are charged with representing all the groups you mention in your question, especially if you or someone very close to you has gone through that kind of ordeal. I’ve always taken pride in advocating for human rights and the homeless. My son’s uncle, a vet who has since passed away from ALS, served two tours in Vietnam and met my sister—whom he later married—when he was homeless in downtown Los Angeles.

Back in 2018, when I was approached by the director of America’s Family, I knew the topic of immigration was a very hot one, as it had been during Bush Jr. and Bush Sr.’s administrations, which is why I urged her to speed up the editing so that it would coincide with [what] I knew and anticipated Trump would do during his first term—and is now doing brutality and inhumanely in his second.

As far as women’s rights go, I grew up in a household that was very sexist. I used to have heated debates and arguments with my own father about my brothers not doing more tasks around the house that I was told to do, or sew the holes in their own socks. Beyond that I witnessed women in so many countries that I lived in be discriminated against just because they had a vagina, or be treated like property or second class citizens because they didn’t matter like their husbands did.

In the United States, let’s not forget [that] women did not get the right to vote until 1869, and in 1804, Haiti declared its independence from France. I love history, and I think it is important to remember what those who came before us went through for us to have our freedom and certain rights that were literally fought for, and people died to ensure we could live so carefree.

Nadia Voukitchevitch at the U.S. premiere of America’s Family, held at TCL Chinese Theatre during the 25th Dances With Films Festival

In addition to filmmaking, you’ve been deeply involved in education, nonprofit work, and mentorship. How do these roles complement your work as a storyteller?

I’m honored and flattered to have anyone call me a mentor. I do enjoy mentoring and teaching anyone who wants to learn what I’ve learned—not just in life, but [across] my various professions. When it comes to volunteering, especially with nonprofits that I’ve partnered with over the years, it’s what I feel good about doing by serving my community in any way I can.

From a very young age, I’ve felt a tremendous responsibility and duty to serve and to educate. My paternal grandfather was a member of the Secretariat General of the League of Nations and a big promoter of peace after surviving the horrific Balkan War and subsequent World War I. In fact, my second degree—my master’s—is in Human Development, with a concentration in Leadership in Education and Human Services.

I was blessed to have had a few good teachers and professors throughout my life, and they taught me the value of passing along good information and the truth about history. My mother, like most Asian moms, is a huge promoter of education, and [to] this day I’m terrified of bringing home anything that is less than an A+, despite not being in school anymore… [Laughs] Well, I might go back to get my doctorate!

I believe all these roles I’ve taken on voluntarily have shaped me as a storyteller, in that I do not have to be “authentic” in my writing, as I speak from having lived what I try and write about, and hope that someone can identify with those stories and that they might help them in some way.

Nadia Voukitchevitch on set of Powerful & Inspiring Asian Women with celebrity hairdresser and stylist Mira Chai Hyde

Looking ahead, what kinds of projects or stories are you most excited to explore next in your filmmaking journey?

Wow! Well, there are so many stories that remain to be told. Of course, I love telling stories that have a social impact. I have a whole list on my desktop of movies “I WILL MAKE,” and several feature-length scripts I’m writing [that are] still in [the] development and research stage. Some are historic pieces that require big budgets, and some are perfect for an A24 indie budget.

I have a TV comedy series that I’ve been reworking and rewriting with a Women in Media Writers’ Group, which I haven’t attended in months due to opening new offices in New York City for my company. That is a series I started writing when I first became a single mom.

I also have my docu-series that I’m actively seeking funding and distribution for so I can finish the four-part series on powerful and inspiring women. I love doing pieces on historical women, and every day I discover another woman who did such amazing things for the world—yet so few people know about it. I feel obligated to document it and make a film that everyone can enjoy and learn something from.

One of my biggest fears is not having enough time to read all the books I have in my house, in a huge pile by my bedside, and all the books in the world. Books are knowledge, and knowledge is power, and some of the greatest stories on film come from books. I encourage this Alpha generation to read more books. One of my mentors, James Schamus, always told me that if the material is good, the film sells itself, but the writing and material needs to be good, meaning authentic and relatable.

The biggest hurdle is funding. For us to produce all these creative projects and films, we have to do well in our commercial division, as that often helps fund some of these. So if anyone out there reading this wants to invest in my scripts and films and would like to receive producer credit, please reach out to me at nadia@nadiafilms.com.

Connect with Nadia Voukitchevitch at nadia@nadiafilms.com, on Instagram at @nadiafilms_nadiavoukitchevitch, and follow her work through The Creative Collective and Nadia Films.

(All images courtesy of Nadia Voukitchevitch)