Nicola von Leffern is a German-Austrian director, born in Hamburg in 1986.  She studied at the Vienna Film Academy and works internationally across documentary film, commercials, and music videos. Her feature-length debut To Close Your Eyes And See Fire, which she developed over the course of three years in Lebanon, received the Film Critics Award for “Best Documentary” as well as “Best Music in a Documentary” at the renowned Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival in 2025, and went on to win the Audience Award at the Bergamo Film Meeting in 2026. The film is currently under consideration for the Austrian Film Award. Her commercial and music video work has also received widespread recognition, notably earning her the Cultural Impact Award at the Berlin Commercial Festival in 2020, highlighting her distinctive blend of striking visual language and socially engaged storytelling. Shaped by her early involvement in NGO work, Nicola is drawn to underrepresented stories, often marked by remarkable resilience. A commitment to fostering greater social justice and making societal fractures both visible and palpable drives her filmmaking. Strengthening female perspectives—both in front of and behind the camera—remains a central artistic statement of her work.