Nicole Sylvester - Features - Documentary & Narrative

Nicole Sylvester is a writer/director/producer whose credits include the collaborative feature film, The Owner, where Nicole joined forces with 25 filmmakers from 13 countries to produce/direct the first international feature film of its kind. The film was screened to packed theaters and landed the 25  filmmakers in the Guinness World Records for “Most Directors on an international film.”

2021's Maya & Her Lover is her first feature film as producer, writer and director. The film, inspired by true events, is about a woman who stifled by complicated memories of her overbearing father and on the verge of becoming a recluse, begins a sexual relationship with a much younger man who is barely navigating his way through life as a Black Man in America. The film has played at several film festivals including 2021 Pan African Film Festival and 2021 Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival.

Director, Writer, Filmmaker: Nicole Sylvester

Nicole has been a director all her life – her family has always called her bossy – but her professional career began as a producer/director at a local cable company in Detroit. There she was able to hone her skills culminating in her documentary Lonely Eagles: Airmen of Tuskegee, being nominated for a national Cable ACE and winning a local Cable ICE Award.

Nicole transitioned from cable to greener pastures of film production by directing the short films The Stop and minor blues. The success of these films helped to establish her as a burgeoning filmmaker on Detroit’s indie filmmaking scene. Nicole was a panelist at several local film festivals and film related events. She is a former board member of the Detroit Film Center where she also taught filmmaking workshops and is the recipient of three Public Benefit Corporation grants for film productions.

Since relocating to New York, Nicole has produced several projects including the feature films Blood Bound and Cargo. Shot entirely in the Bahamas, Cargo has played at numerous film festivals winning several award s including Best Diaspora Film at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival, Best Film at the Haiti International Film Festival and winner of the Amnesty International Human Rights Prize for film.

Nicole is a member of New York Women in Film & TV, Women Independent Producers, Film Fatales and an Iatse local 161. Ever versatile, Nicole is currently developing several television and feature film projects. Maya & Her Lover will be distributed by 1091 Pictures in December 2021.