Valérie Massadian is a filmmaker whose work concentrates on female characters, their animality, and their relationships with nature and the world. Massadian’s background is in photography, and she has collaborated with filmmakers and artists such as Nan Goldin. Her first feature, Nana (2011), explores childhood through and with a four-year-old girl. Massadian creates her films by working closely with nonprofessional actors and using documentary tools to create fiction—a fiction invaded by life, playing with the boundaries of realism and fairy tales.

At Radcliffe, Massadian is finishing and editing her second feature film, Milla, which deals with a 17-year-old girl about to become a mother in an isolated village in the north of France.

Nana has shown in numerous prestigious film festivals around the world and won such awards as Best First Feature at Festival del Film Locarno; Best International Film at Festival Internacional de Cine de Valdivia; the Great Award of the Seventh Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival; the !f Inspired award at !f Istanbul; and the Silver Apricot for Armenian Panorama prize at the Golden Apricot International Film Festival. Her short films—including America (2013), Mamoushka (2012), Precious (2012), and Ninouche (2011)—have also been shown around the world at such festivals as Locarno, Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the UNAM International Film Festival, and the Viennale—Vienna International Film Festival.