Nancy Paton

Nancy Paton is an Australian-Polish director, screenwriter and producer.

Life and career
Paton was born in Sydney, Australia to Polish parents. She went to Newtown Performing Arts High School in New South Wales and later attended and graduated from the University of Sydney.

In 2011, she produced the short film Steamboat. After moving to the Middle East, Paton set up her production company, Desert Rose Films in 2014.

She made her directorial debut with the film Daisy in 2016. In the same year, she directed the film Postpartum which was filmed in Saudi Arabia with an amateur all-female film crew. Paton received the Best Director award at the Melbourne Indie Film Festival for her work on the film.

In 2017, Paton directed and produced the films Choke and The Black Abaya. She won a Best Director award for her work in Choke, and the movie itself won Best Film and Best Cinematography.

In 2022, she produced the film Mountain Boy, an adaptation of the 2017 children's book "The Boy Who Knew the Mountains" by Emirati-Australian author Michele Ziolkowski.

Paton lives in Abu Dhabi with her husband and three children.