Selected as one of Variety Magazine's 'Top 10 Directors to Watch', Emily Abt is an ambidextrous filmmaker who has directed six feature films - two narratives and four documentaries. Abt is also a seasoned documentary cinematographer and branded content director who has created films for clients such as 23andMe, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson and Oracle. Her independent films have been supported by foundations including The US-UK Fulbright Commission, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Independent Feature Project, Adrienne Shelley Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Paul Robeson Foundation, and the Playboy Foundation.

Abt's narrative feature "Toe to Toe" was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival and released by Strand. Abt's latest fiction feature project "Thirsty" won the Athena Award and is being released worldwide by Gravitas Ventures.

Abt's first feature documentary "Take It From Me" (PBS's POV series) was created when she was a 23 year-old caseworker in New York City. She then went on to receive her MFA in film directing from Columbia University and was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to make her thesis film. Abt's other feature documentaries include "All Of Us" (Showtime's 2008 World AIDs Day film) and "Daddy Don't Go" which was executive produced by the actors/activists Omar Epps and Malik Yoba. The film won eight "Best Documentary" awards and premiered on the Starz network in 2017. In 2018 Abt was tapped by Showtime to direct the feature documentary feature "Beyond the Opposite Sex" about two transgender people living in rural America. It premiered on the network in Spring 2018. In 2019, Emily shot and directed the short film "Born A Fighter" which was commissioned by 23andMe and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In 2020 Abt was hired by "Sorry to Bother You" producer George Rush to co-write the feature comedy "Unborn". From 2020-2021 Abt served as a Consulting Producer on the Amazon Studios and Emmy award-winning documentary "Wildcat" and from 2022-2025 has been co-producing and editing the forthcoming feature documentary "Transcending Ellenville". She also has a Berkeley-based episodic series called "Pureland" in development.

Abt was a Brooklyn based filmmaker for 20 years who moved to the Bay area in 2016 with her partner (UC Berkeley Professor Shamik Dasgupta) and their two daughters. She is a member of New Day Films, Free the Bid, Film Fatales and the Collective of Documentary Women Cinematographers.

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Emily Abt

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