Nancy was born in Athens, Greece, which she continues to consider home, while Berlin, where she has lived for the past twenty years, is also central to her life. For her, home is defined not only by place, but by language and the people she loves.

She began working with Catalyst in autumn 2025, where she teaches the second-year Screenwriting seminar Tragedy and Cinema, combining classical dramaturgy with film history and close analysis.

Her professional background spans more than 30 years across film, theatre and television. She studied Classical Philology before completing a Master of Arts in Film Direction and Screenwriting at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. She has written and directed numerous award-winning short films and television documentaries, and her work has been recognised with honours including the Grimme Preis and the Melina Merkouri Greek State Award. She has also participated in the Biennale of Young Artists in Rome.

Her first feature film, The Surface of Things (2017), premiered in competition at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and received the Best Greek Newcomer Director’s Award at the Athens International Film Festival. Her second feature, Maysoon (2024), screened at Oldenburg and Thessaloniki International Film Festivals, where it received the Best Performance Award for Sabrina Amali, and was awarded Best Film at the German Film Festival Filmnächte Ahrenshoop.

Alongside her film work, Nancy has been involved in theatre and opera productions in Greece, Italy and Berlin, creating dramaturgical concepts and video projections. She has participated in screenwriting workshops with her own projects and taught short seminars on filmmaking and acting as a freelance practitioner.

She joined Catalyst seeking a more permanent teaching role within a creative, international and practice-oriented educational model aligned with her experience, and found an environment that values individual contribution while maintaining a strong commitment to the curriculum.

Her expertise includes writing, directing and dramaturgy for cinema and theatre, with a strong focus on working with actors. Her practice also encompasses mixed-media performance combining text, music and video, as well as documentary research, interviewing and directing.

In her teaching, she values dialogue and creative conflict with younger people around aesthetics and ideas. Sharing academic knowledge and long-term experience challenges her to reassess her own perspectives, while supporting students in developing new approaches to film analysis and storytelling.

Alongside teaching, she continues to search for narrative tools that enable emotionally powerful and relevant filmmaking. Her interests focus on emotional and political cinema, questioning how filmmakers can remain human and culturally rooted while engaging with technology, and reflecting on cinema’s role amid rising totalitarianism, climate change and alternatives to patriarchy and capitalism. Her work is guided by values of freedom, justice, respect and tolerance, and influenced by Ana Mendieta’s Body Tracks, John Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence, Radiohead’s OK Computer and Albert Camus’ The Stranger.

Award-winning writer-director and dramaturgist with extensive experience in film, theatre and mixed-media performance, teaching classical dramaturgy and film analysis at Catalyst. Read Nancy's profile.

Nancy Biniadaki

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