Paula Eiselt

Paula Eiselt is an award-winning independent feature-film director and producer who tells stories about unforgettable characters thriving in unbelievable circumstances.

Her work has been shown at film festivals around the world including Sundance, SXSW, and Hot Docs and distributed by global broadcasters and streaming platforms such as HBOMax, Hulu, Disney+, PBS’s POV and Arte.

Her most recent feature, Aftershock, premiered at 2022 Sundance in the U.S. Doc Competition and was awarded the Special Jury Award: Impact for Change. The film is also an official selection for 2022 SXSW and will have an international premiere at Hot Docs International Film Festival. AFTERSHOCK will be released by Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News to stream on HULU and Disney+ in 2022.

Eiselt's award-winning documentary feature debut 93Queen, a co-production with ITVS/PBS and Arte/SWR, was released theatrically across the U.S. and Canada, including a six week hold over at NYC’s IFC Center. Now streaming across HBOMax’s U.S and Latin American platforms, 93Queen was broadcast nationally on PBS’s POV, as well as internationally on ARTE in France and Germany, UR in Sweden, yes DocU in Israel, and CBC in Canada. 93Queen played at over 75 film festivals worldwide and was selected for the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase.

Eiselt is previously a Concordia Studio fellow, Sundance Producers Summit fellow, IFP Filmmaker Lab fellow and Wyncote fellow. Her work has been supported by ITVS, the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Fund, Sundance Catalyst, Impact Partners, New York State Council of the Arts, Just Films | Ford Foundation, IDA Enterprise Fund, IDA Pare Lorentz Doc Fund, American Stories Documentary Fund (sponsored by CNN Films), Points North Institute, Fork Films, Gucci Tribeca Doc Fund, Chicago Media Project, the Hartley Film Foundation, IFP, and Women Make Movies.

IndieWire named Eiselt one of 22 Rising Filmmakers to Watch in 2022.

In 2019, she was named one of Jewish Week's “36 Under 36” for her role in amplifying women's voices, and serves on the board of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. Eiselt is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a double major in Film Production and Cinema Studies.

Eiselt currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and their 4 children. She is poised to make new independent films and commissioned content about fearless trailblazers fighting for change from all walks of life.