Ksenia Naughton
Ksenia is a Russian-born award-winning film director, screenwriter, video editor and producer. She earned her MFA degree in Cinema Directing from Columbia College Chicago. She is a member of BAFTA Connect, Film Fatales and NYWIFT. Her work covers social justice and mental health as well as women’s, immigrant’s and LGBTQ+ rights issues. Her films have screened at a multitude of film festivals around the globe. Ksenia is a recipient of the Albert P. Weisman Award, the Carole Fielding Student Grant, the Arch Bruce Brown Foundation Grant and the Lya Dym Rosenblum Professional Development Award. Her thesis film, Jack and Anna, has screened at 40+ festivals including the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival. It won the Best Global Short: Beyond the Rainbow Award at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival and has been nationally recognized at the 42nd Telly Awards, garnering Silver and Bronze Awards. Ksenia was also nominated for the 2020 Cannes Lions Young Director Award. Her portfolio includes credits on numerous well-known productions in various roles. She is currently developing a few projects, including a pilot, two shorts, and a feature. Her short screenplay, The Blouse, won the Grand Prize at the 2022 Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) Screenplay Competition. She is an alumnus of the AICP Mentoring Program Cycle 2 and was a semi-finalist at the 2023 CDDP-Commercial Directors Diversity Program. In 2024, she was nominated for the Princess Grace Awards by NYWIFT and for the Tribeca Through Her Lens program by Film Fatales.
