Meet Nicole Sylvester

Nicole is an award-winning Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Maya & Her Lover is her debut feature film as writer/director. The film is about a woman who, stifled by complicated memories of her overbearing father and on the verge of becoming a recluse, begins a sexual relationship with a much younger man who at the ripe age of 22 is unsuccessfully attempting to overcome his past.

Maya & Her Lover has played at several film festivals including American Black Film Festival, where it was nominated for ‘’Best Feature Film’’ and “Best Director”, Harlem International Film Festival, where it won “Best Feature”, Detroit Trinity International Film Festival where it won “Best Feature”, Black Harvest Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival and Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival.

Nicole has been a director all her life – her family has always called her bossy – but her professional career began as a producer/director at a local cable company in Detroit. There she was able to hone her skills culminating in a national Cable ACE nomination and a local Cable ICE Award win.

Nicole transitioned from cable to the greener pastures of film production by 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 has been a panelist at several film festivals and film related events. She is a former board member of the Detroit Film Center where she also taught filmmaking workshops and is the recipient of three Public Benefit Corporation grants for film productions. Nicole’s other credits include writer/director 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 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 Blood Bound and Cargo. Shot entirely in the Bahamas, Cargo has played at numerous film festivals winning several awards including Best Diaspora Film at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival, Best Film at the Haiti International Film Festival and winner of the Amnesty International Human Rights Prize for film.

Her expertise and knowledge of the studio system comes from years as a production coordinator for studio and network such as HBO, Sony Pictures, Starz and Amazon Studios.

​Nicole is a member of Producers Guild, New York Women in Film & TV, Women Independent Producers, Film Fatales and Alliance of Women Directors.