Disability Belongs™ Entertainment Lab 2025
Afia Serena Nathaniel
Pakistani-American filmmaker Afia Nathaniel made her debut with Dukhtar – a road-trip thriller. It played to a rousing reception at Toronto in 2014 and became Pakistan’s Official Submission to the Oscars in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category. Dukhtar won several awards and received critical acclaim in over 20 countries including the Critics’ Pick (Village Voice) and the People Magazine’s Pick of the Week.
Afia moves seamlessly between Film and TV as a writer and director. She recently created a crime/thriller for TV and is the first Pakistani-American female director to be hired by a US network/studio in episodic directing (one-hour drama). Her latest short Don’t be late, Myra (2024) premiered at Woodstock where it was nominated for the Oscar-qualifying Mark Braunstein Award for Short Film. 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”.
Afia holds an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University (Dean’s Fellow). She is an alumnus of Gotham, Tribeca Film Institute, Film Independent and Berlin Talent Project Market. Her work has received support from HBO, Netflix, National Geographic, Tribeca Film Institute, Cinereach, Women in Film, New York Foundation for the Arts, International Film Festival Rotterdam, SorFond (Films from the South), Caucus Foundation, NYSCA + Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Afia shares her love for storytelling with students. She has taught Film/TV courses at Princeton as the Princeton Arts Fellow (2016-18), NYU Tisch and Temple. She is currently teaching screenwriting at the Graduate Film program of Columbia University. And is also a generous mentor to emerging filmmakers through several labs.
When Afia is not teaching or cooking, she is busy developing her own film and TV shows. Afia is a member of the Directors Guild of America, Gotham, Alliance of Women Directors, Rideback RISE Circle, Film Independent and Film Fatales (NYC Narrative Chapter).
