Nicole Ballivian
writer-director
About
Nicole Ballivian is a screenwriter and director based in Los Angeles, born and raised in Washington DC. Nicole's script, YEMMA, was the 2022 Pilot Winner for the BlueCat Screenplay Competition and her dramatic feature screenplay, SLEEPING ON STONES, was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
Nicole wrote and directed the comedic short film, JOE & THE SHAWL, that was the 2021 Grand Winner at New York Women in Film & Television Festival and won the Audience Award at the 2020 VOX Feminae Film Festival. Nicole's writing and directing debut was the comedic feature, DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND, shot in Los Angeles and Palestine, which won numerous international festival awards.
Nicole’s production background includes work for Warner Bros TV, Universal Pictures and in independent film.
A graduate in Film & Media Arts from American University in Washington DC, Nicole is a Fourth Culture Kid who writes mostly about the confluence of identity and emigration.
Accolades
Sleeping on Stones (Feature Drama Screenplay, in development)
•Selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab
•Top 50 Semi-Finalist, Cinequest Screenwriting Competition 2022
•Top 50 Roadmap Writers Top Tier Competition 2021/2022
•Top 1% of discoverable projects on Coverfly
•Currently on the Coverfly RED LIST, Feature Drama #12
•Finalist, Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition 2021
•Top 5 Finalist, Shore Scripts Feature Contest 2021
•Semifinalist, The Writers Lab US 2021
•Second Rounder, Launch Pad Feature Competition 2021
•Quarterfinalist, Scriptapalooza Feature Competition 2021
•Semifinalist, Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition 2021
•Quarterfinalist, Emerging Screenwriters - Genre Screenplay Competition 2021
•Quarterfinalist, Filmmatic - Inroads Fellowship Season 4 2021
•Quarterfinalist, Screenwriters Network - SWN Screenplay Competition Goldman Award 2021
•Quarterfinalist, Filmmatic Drama Screenplay Awards Season 6, 2021
Hijrah Baby (Feature Drama Screenplay, in development)
•Second Rounder, Sundance Development Lab 2022
•Top 20%, Academy Nicholl Fellowship 2021
•Quarterfinalist, Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Competition 2022
•Semifinalist, The TITAN Awards 2021
•Semifinalist, Big Apple Film Festival & Screenplay Competition 2021
•#48 Hot 100 Winner, Capital Fund Screenplay Competition 2021
•Quarterfinalist, Screenwriters Network - SWN Screenplay Competition Goldman Award 2021
Yemma (Pilot Drama Script, in development)
•Winner, BlueCat Screenplay Competition 2022
•Second Rounder, Sundance Episodic Lab 2021
•Semifinalist, Bluecat Screenplay Competition 2021-2022
•Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition 2021
•Coverfly RED LIST in Drama Television (Half-hour)
•Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Drama Competition 2021
•Quarterfinalist, The Film Empire Diversity Mentorship 2021
•Quarterfinalist, Screenwriters Network - SWN Screenplay Competition Goldman Award 2021
Joe & The Shawl (Short Comedy, completed)
•Grand Winner, New York Women in Film & Television Festival 2021
•Winner, 1st Place: Social Issues Category, New York Women in Film & Television Festival 2021
•Audience Award, Vox Feminae Film Festival 2020
Driving to Zigzigland (Feature Comedy, completed)
•Winner, Russia Cinematographers and Film Critics Award 2007
•Winner, Best Feature Film, Amal Film Fest 2007
•Winner, Best Actor, Amal Film Fest 2007
•Winner, Audience Award , FilmFest DC 2007
Press
• Joe & The Shawl Underlines Dogmatism So Humorously - Yahoo News
• Joe & The Shawl - Review - Film Threat
• Muslim Writer's Experience with Discrimination Turned into Film - Spectrum News 1
• Filmmaker talks about 'Joe & the Shawl,' a short film inspired by Triad writer/podcaster Deonna Kelli Sayed - Yes! Weekly
•War on terror drives Arab actor to "Zigzigland" - Reuters
• Filmmaker determined to tell Hebron story in troubled city - The National
Joe & The Shawl
Short Comedy, Completed 2020Joe Potay, an adorable tow truck driver really digs Kelli, a fellow North Carolinian, when he meets her as he changes her dead car battery. But Joe’s interest takes a sharp right turn when he learns that Kelli is a Muslim. Kelli finds herself stuck in Joe's tow truck cab as he reveals his ultra-conservative white nationalist ideas. Joe informs Kelli that she’s damned to hell, so Kelli insinuates she’s left him something special in his truck.
Sleeping on Stones
Feature Drama Screenplay in developmentJacob, a 10-year old Jewish boy from Brooklyn, moves to the Palestinian town of Hebron with his parents as settlers. To his parents' dismay, Jacob's best friends and first love are Palestinian and he comes of age in the brutal occupation of Hebron until he turns 18, when he becomes a conscientious objector, refusing mandatory enlistment in the Israeli military.
Hijrah Baby
Feature Drama Screenplay in development
In searching for her Muslim identity, Zeina falls in love online with Adam, who’s fighting for Syrian liberation. Zeina travels to Syria to be with Adam only to find out he’s fighting for the Islamic State instead. Zeina can only escape on the day ISIS falls.
Yemma
Episodic Drama Series Script in development
Emma, a 9-year-old New Yorker with a genetic polyglottal superpower loses her entire family on 9/11, so she decides to kill Osama Bin Laden. Emma travels by land down through Latin America, then sails over the Atlantic, treks all across the Muslim World, meeting girls and women who fight their own lives' struggles, forming a lifelong sisterhood. After 10 years, Emma accomplishes her task in Abbottabad.
Driving to Zigzigland
Feature Comedy, completed
A Palestinian cab driver tries to make it as an actor in Los Angeles while battling auditions for typecast terrorist roles and a slew of berserk passengers in a post-9/11 America. Memories of his life as a legitimate theater actor back in Palestine under Israeli occupation make him question whether this American Dream is really worth the fight.
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