Elizabeth Mirzaei

Elizabeth Mirzaei is a director and cinematographer of nonfiction films. Her latest feature documentary NATALIA premiered at True/False and Visions du Réel, and was nominated for an Australian Screen Award for Best Editing. The film was one of Vox’s ten new documentaries to watch for, and praised by critics as a film that “bucks the conventions.” Her short film THREE SONGS FOR BENAZIR, co-directed with her husband Gulistan Mirzaei, won a Cinema Eye Honors Award, a Grierson Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 2022. The film was acquired by Netflix.  Elizabeth’s first feature LAILA AT THE BRIDGE played at film festivals including Locarno and CPH:DOX, and had a theatrical release in the U.K. Previously, Elizabeth lived in Afghanistan where she filmed documentaries for the BBC, Al Jazeera, and Discovery, among others.  Elizabeth participated in the MPI Screenwriting Workshop, where her short screenplay was awarded the Short Film Lab Grant in 2024. Recently, she was an instructor in the MPI Documentary Workshop. Elizabeth has also been a mentor for Global Media Makers and Women in Film, and an advisor for Sundance Co//ab. She lives in California with her husband and their three daughters.