Fawzia Mirza
Fawzia is a queer, South Asian, Muslim writer/director in TV/film. Her feature film THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS screened in competition at TIFF, BFI London Film Festival and SXSW, won 14 awards, received 5 Canadian Academy Screen Award nominations, winning 2. Fawzia was nominated for the Jean Marc Valée DGC Discovery Award, won the DGC's ‘Outstanding Direction in a Feature Film' and QUEEN was named to TIFF's 'Canada's Top Ten.' Mirza co-wrote & starred in award-winning, SXSW world premiere feature SIGNATURE MOVE which starred Indian film legend Shabana Azmi. Fawzia's award-winning shorts have screened all over the world including: I KNOW HER (wp: Outfest 2019), NOOR & LAYLA (wp: Blackstar 2020), THE SYED FAMILY XMAS EVE GAME NIGHT (wp: TIFF 2021, bought by major network, DARE TO DREAM (2021 Honoree of TIFF & Birks Diamonds' Women Filmmaker program), AUNTIE (wp: Aspen ShortsFest, developed with Paul Feig, bought by The New Yorker), BROWN ELEPHANT (wp: Twitter 2.3M views, 20th Studios). Fawzia is a Sundance/Disney Artist Fellow, TIFF Share Her Journey Fellow, an SF FILM Rainin Fellow, a Yes and Laughter Lab Winner, an ISF Scholarship Winner, a Tribeca Institute Alum, a Ryan Murphy Half Initiative alum (shadowed LONESTAR 911), a Canadian Academy Directors Program for Women alum, she shadowed on Ally Pankiw's feature I USED TO BE FUNNY and Sheri Elwood's TV show MOONSHINE, she has participated in the TIFF Screenwriter and Filmmaker Lab, and her feature HEIRLOOM was on the Blacklist's Muslim List. She has been a mentor for the Queer Frames Screenwriting Lab, Film Fatales Forward, 1497 Features Lab, Washington Filmworks,The Pillars Fund, and has been a Sundance Creative Advisor. Fawzia directed Episode 8 of the hit half hour Hulu comedy series DELI BOYS executive produced by Jenni Konner, Nora Silver, Michelle Nader, created by Abdullah Saeed and produced by Onyx.
