Nicole Sylvester

Nicole Sylvester is an award-winning Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Maya & Her Lover is her debut feature film as writer/director/producer. Nicole’s professional career began as a producer/director at a local cable company in Detroit. There she honed her skills culminating in a national Cable ACE nomination and a local Cable ICE Award win. She transitioned from cable to the greener pastures of film production by producing and directing the short films The Stop and minor blues. The success of these films helped establish her as a burgeoning filmmaker on Detroit’s independent filmmaking scene. Nicole’s other credits include writer/director/producer on the collaborative feature film The Owner, where she 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 around the world and landed the 25 filmmakers in the Guinness World Records for “Most Directors on an International Film.” She has also produced several projects including the feature films The Burning Bride, 17000 Block, Blood Bound and Cargo. Shot entirely in the Bahamas, Cargo has played at numerous film festivals winning several awards including the Amnesty International Human Rights Prize for film. Her experience includes work on the studio productions Venom 2 (Sony Pictures), Power (Starz) and Harlem (Amazon Studios) where she was the production coordinator and as a Distribution Coordinator for Jeff Daniels' company Purple Rose Films. Nicole is a member of the Producers Guild of America, Alliance of Women Directors, New York Women in Film & TV, Women Independent Producers, Film Fatales and IATSE Local 161. She is a current Board Member-at-Large for the Black Girl Book Collective and the recipient of three Public Benefit Corporation grants for film productions. And a former board member of the Detroit Film Center where she also taught filmmaking workshops. Nicole is currently developing several television and feature film projects.