Award-Winning Director | Fulbright Scholar | Educator 

           Nabat Shir is a Fulbright Fellow, Student Emmy Award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer from Turkmenistan (Central Asia). She is the first filmmaker from her country to premiere a film in Hollywood and to be awarded a Fulbright Grant — a prestigious U.S. scholarship, awarded for academic merit, professional potential, and leadership. Shir is an alumna of the Edmund S. Muskie Professional Fellowship Program (2023). 
          As a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduate in Film & Television from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Nabat Shir brings a singular cinematic voice shaped by her Central Asian roots and refined through Western training. She creates emotionally powerful, visually striking films that explore timeless themes such as life and death, love and betrayal, loneliness, memory, the search for meaning, identity, and freedom.  Shir’s mission is to create films that expand consciousness and reflect the complexity of human experience. In her pursuit to expand the expressive capacity of film, she experiments with visual aesthetics, sound design, performance, complex characters, and screenplays that blend philosophical depth with emotionally gripping, engaging storytelling.
          With over eight years of international production experience and a background that spans Central Asia, and the U.S., Nabat’s work has screened and won awards at festivals in Hollywood and Europe. Her short film The Window had its world premiere in October 2024 at two Hollywood festivals: the City of Angels Film Festival and the 20th Annual LA Femme International Film Festival, earning Best Female Director at the City of Angels Film Festival, as well as accolades for Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Design, and Best Short Film across multiple European festivals.
          That same year, she directed Mimi Meets Mio, a commercial for Kraft Heinz’s Mio brand, which won a Southeast Student Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts (NATAS) — one of the highest honors for student filmmakers in television. The spot also won a Bronze Pencil at The One Club for Creativity’s Young Ones Awards, one of the world’s most prestigious student advertising competitions, held in New York City.
          Nabat’s creative journey began with co-founding ARGACH FILMS in 2016. In 2020, she directed To Mother, a music video for acclaimed Turkmen composer Rovshen Nepesov, and Creator for the 48 Hour Film Race. The short film was nominated and selected among the Top 48 Best Short Films in Central Asia, with Shir taking on the roles of director, producer, writer, and editor.
          In addition to her work as a director, Nabat Shir is an educator and advocate for the amplification of female perspectives in storytelling. In 2024, she launched and led Women in Film: Directing Fundamentals, a hands-on training program in Turkmenistan designed to equip aspiring female filmmakers with foundational directing skills. Through mentorship and education, she is building a legacy of storytelling that is inclusive, empowering, and transformative.