Emelie Mahdavian is an Emmy, Peabody, and Sundance Award-winning filmmaker. Her films explore the grandeur of our planet and the beauty of human connection. As an artist, she has traveled from Tajikistan to the American West, and from the ballet studio to a crumbling ice shelf in Antarctica. Her films have screened at major venues including Telluride Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Centre Pompidou, Berlin Film Festival, and Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center, garnering awards recognition, international press, and receiving international theatrical distribution. She was selected for DOCNYC “40 under 40” in 2020.

She is currently completing her fifth feature film, entitled PLANET A, a film about a women-led science team on the final scientific expedition to Antarctica's "Doomsday Glacier" before it collapses into the sea. The film was the result of a solo-filming expedition. BITTERBRUSH is in release with Magnolia Pictures/Hulu and MetFilm. It was hailed as “sublime” by Indiewire, was selected as a New York Times Critics Pick, and Variety critic Tomris Laffly selected it as a “Top 10 film of 2022” alongside Tár and The Banshees of Inisherin. She produced, wrote, and edited MIDNIGHT TRAVELER, which premiered at Sundance, won numerous international prizes, and was nominated for a Gotham Award for Best Documentary.

Emelie studied filmmaking at London Film School and holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies with an emphasis in Practice as Research from the University of California, Davis. She was formerly a professional dancer and is also completing a feature documentary on the creative process of visionary choreographer Alonzo King and Lines Ballet.