Biography
Recognized by Variety Magazine as one of the 'Top 10 Directors to Watch,' Emily Abt is a versatile filmmaker who has directed six feature films—two narratives and four documentaries. She is also an experienced documentary cinematographer and branded content director, having produced films for clients including 23andMe, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and Oracle. Her independent work has received support from organizations such as 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 distributed by Strand. Her most recent fiction feature, "Thirsty," won the Athena Award and is being released globally by Gravitas Ventures.
Her debut feature documentary, "Take It From Me" (part of PBS's POV series), was produced when she was a 23-year-old caseworker in New York City. She later earned an MFA in film directing from Columbia University and received a Fulbright fellowship to create her thesis film. Additional feature documentaries include "All Of Us" (Showtime's 2008 World AIDS Day film) and "Daddy Don't Go," executive produced by actors and activists Omar Epps and Malik Yoba. The latter won eight "Best Documentary" awards and premiered on the Starz network in 2017. In 2018, Showtime selected Abt to direct "Beyond the Opposite Sex," a feature documentary about two transgender individuals living in rural America, which premiered in spring 2018. In 2019, she directed and shot the short film "Born A Fighter," commissioned by 23andMe and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
In 2020, Abt was hired by George Rush, producer of "Sorry to Bother You," to co-write the feature comedy "Unborn." Between 2020 and 2021, she served as Consulting Producer on Amazon Studios’ Emmy-winning documentary "Wildcat." From 2022 through 2025, she has been co-producing and editing the upcoming feature documentary "Transcending Ellenville." She also has an episodic series titled "Pureland" in development, based in Berkeley.
After spending 20 years as a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, Abt relocated to the Bay Area in 2016 with her partner, UC Berkeley Professor Shamik Dasgupta, and their two daughters. She is affiliated with New Day Films, Free the Bid, Film Fatales, and the Collective of Documentary Women Cinematographers.
