Nino Benashvili is a writer and director from Tbilisi, Sakartvelo (Georgia), currently based in New York City. She is the first Georgian woman to attend the NYU Tisch Graduate Film Program, where she is a thesis student. She was named a 2023 BAFTA US BBC Diversity Scholar and is a recipient of the Maurice Kanbar Scholarship. Her debut narrative short, Where Time Stood Still, premiered at the 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival and has screened at Tallinn Black Nights (PÖFF), Santa Barbara, with upcoming screenings at Palm Springs ShortFest, In the Palace, and FEST – New Directors/New Films. It was nominated by NYU for the 2025 BAFTA Student Awards and received the Wasserman Jagat Murari Directing Award, along with several craft honors.
She is currently in production on her first feature documentary, Of The Trees Unmoved, a lyrical, memory-driven exploration of Georgian resistance, and developing her first narrative feature, Scenes from a Half-Forgotten Childhood, set in 1990s Tbilisi. Her first documentary short, Children of Nikozi (2021), about her bombed childhood village, was acquired by PBS and won a Bronze Remi at Houston WorldFest. Nino holds a B.A. from St. John’s College in Annapolis, where she studied philosophy and the history of math and science. She has worked across sound, cinematography, and editing on independent films, including projects executive produced by Spike Lee and directed by Alexandre Rockwell. She is fluent in Georgian, English, German, and Russian, with working knowledge of Ancient Greek and French.