Nabat Shir is a Fulbright Scholar, Southeast Student Emmy Award-winning director, writer, and producer from Turkmenistan — the first female filmmaker from her country to emerge on the international stage with her film debuting in Hollywood. She holds an MFA in Film & Television from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD, USA) where her projects were selected to represent the university in submissions for the Student Academy Awards, Emmy® and DGA Student Awards. She is a Muskie Program alumna.

Her feature film project, Music Within Me, was selected for the upcoming TorinoFilmLab Next Feature Film 2026.
Her short film The Window (2024) premiered at the LA Femme IFF (USA), and won Best Female Director at the City of Angels FF, (USA) and Best Short Film at the Golden Nugget IFF (UK), along with awards for Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Sound Design at the Sipontum Arthouse IFF (IT).

Her commercial work includes Mimi Meets Mio (Kraft Heinz), which earned a Southeast Student Emmy® Award and a Bronze Pencil at the One Club for Creativity.

Nabat is drawn to stories of women at the edge of inner rupture—when the life assigned to them and who they truly are can no longer occupy the same body. Her work blends intimacy, tension, and sensory detail, using sound and physical space to reveal what happens when silence becomes unbearable.

Committed to supporting female-driven storytelling, she founded Women in Film: Directing Fundamentals — Turkmenistan’s first hands-on training program for emerging women filmmakers.

The Window - Exclusive Trailer

Logline:

An elderly woman watches her past unfold from the window of her family home. She must confront life's choices and missed opportunities before the window closes forever.

Synopsis:

As a child, Vivian looked through her window and saw a world of magic and boundless possibility. Decades later, confined by duty and the heavy silence of an imposed life, Vivian can barely see beyond the glass.

The Window traces the invisible borders that slowly shaped Vivian’s existence. Through the frame of a single window, she revisits a tapestry of love, betrayal, and the quiet compromises that became her cage.

But when an unexpected sound drifts in from outside, she is confronted with a final chance to reach beyond the life she was taught to accept.

“More than the metaphor of the window, I was struck by the image of the little girl turning back to see herself as old. If we all had this opportunity as children — and if someone taught us to consider the entirety of our existence — perhaps we would make more deliberate choices in life. In a sense, this is an esoteric film. Cinema, perhaps even more than literature, can condense into a single image a lesson that is difficult to grasp. A ‘satori’ with a Western flavor.”

— Antonio Del Nobile, Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival

“The soft images and velvety camera movements capture the hidden beauty and shadows of Vivian’s life, using the window as a filter between the internal and external world. The contemplative shots and the play of light evoke the sense of melancholy and regret, making each scene a living painting. Shimizu’s ability to convey deep emotions through images brings out the visual poetry of the film, involving the viewer in an intense and thoughtful emotional journey.”

— Antonio Universi, Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival

“The window becomes a single thread that embroiders Vivien’s life... It passes through her, accompanies her, reveals her, guards her, and takes care of her! A photograph that colors and fades the protagonist’s life, beautifully portrayed through the actors’ performances.”

— Anna Troiano, Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival

Festivals & Awards

World Premiere

City of Angels Film Festival (USA, 2024)

20th Annual LA Femme International Film Festival (USA, 2024)

Best Female Director – Nabat Shir
City of Angels Film Festival (USA, 2024)

Best Short Film

Golden Nugget International Film Festival (UK, 2025)

European Premiere

Golden Nugget International Film Festival (UK, 2025)

Best Screenplay (short film) – Nabat Shir
The Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival (IT, 2024)

Best Cinematography (short film) -Yuuki Shimizu

The Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival (IT, 2024)

Best Sound Design - Mark Otim
The Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival (IT, 2024)

Behind the scenes

TO MOTHER short film (Turkmenistan, 2020)

Mimi Meets Mio Commercial (USA, 2024)

Directed by Nabat Shir

Client: Mio (Kraft Heinz)

Mimi Meets Mio is a 60-second brand film that kicks off the campaign. It features Laura, a young Gen-Z girl, who convinces her eccentric grandma, Mimi, to try Mio Energy as a way to energize her day. Mimi has always been stuck in her frugal ways, like making her own lemonade at restaurants to save money, and needs to add some pep to her step. Thanks to Mio Energy, she is able to roll with the Gen-Z crowd. But now, can they keep up with Mimi?
With Mimi as the face of MiO Energy, she is the out-of-the-box spokesperson for Gen Z to take on each day with energy, excitement, and drive. She has made it her mission to share her newfound power with anyone and everyone. Her capacity for creativity has heightened and now she is challenging the world to follow in her footsteps with the help of Mio Energy.

AWARDS
Southeast Student Emmy® Award – NATAS Student Production Awards, USA, 2025
Bronze Pencil – The One Club for Creativity’s Young Ones Awards, USA, 2024