Nana Duffuor is a first-generation Ghanaian-American filmmaker whose narrative work thoughtfully blends heart and humor to explore themes at the intersection of the personal and political. She holds an MFA in Film from Columbia University School of Arts, with a decade of experience as a fundraising and development professional for social justice nonprofits—a background that deeply informs her community-driven, collaborative approach to filmmaking.
Nana’s distinct directorial voice has earned her the SFFILM Rainin Screenwriting Grant, the NewFest Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award, and the Adrienne Shelly Foundation Award for Female Directors. In 2023, she became the first-ever Columbia graduate student to direct an international short film in Ghana. That film, CONFIRMATION, premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and received an Honorable Mention at the Oscar-qualifying Reel Sisters Film Festival.
Her graduate thesis short, RAINBOW GIRLS (executive produced by Cheryl Dunye and Nava Mau), premiered at Frameline and has screened at over 40 global festivals, including six Oscar-qualifiers. It won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at NewFest, the Audience Award at the New Orleans Film Festival, and was a top-three finalist for the Iris Prize. The feature-length adaptation of RAINBOW GIRLS is currently in development.