Sabina | sabinavajraca

Bio / Resume

Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sabina Vajrača immigrated to the U.S. in 1994 as a war refugee. She started her professional career in theatre, writing, directing and producing plays at The Lincoln Center, SITI Company, and Shakespeare & Company, amongst others.

In 2005 Sabina ventured into the world of film by directing and producing the critically-acclaimed feature documentary BACK TO BOSNIA. The film premiered at the AFI Fest, screened at over 30 festivals worldwide, winning Director’s Choice at the 2006 Crossroads Film Festival, and is featured in the top 100 of the greatest films directed by women by BBC. It's currently streaming on multiple platforms, including Amazon and iTunes.

Since then, she wrote, directed, and produced a dozen short narrative films; music video for Nouvelle Vague’s BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD; commercials for ESPN and IFP Media Center; and wrote numerous award-winning short and feature screenplays.

Most recently she co-directed a Warner Bros./USC feature period drama VOODOO MACBETH, and wrote/directed a short drama VARIABLES, which so far won the Alfred P. Sloan Grant, the DGA Student Awards Grand Prize, Best Student Short at Vail Film Festival, and was the Student Academy Awards Semifinalist, and 2020 HUMANITAS Prize Finalist.

Outside of her own projects, Sabina worked as an assistant to writer/director Max Mayer on his feature drama ADAM, starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne (2009 Sundance); alongside Gregory Crewdson on his photo opus CATHEDRAL OF THE PINES; as an Associate Producer for Walter Mosley and Diane Houslin at B.O.B. Filmhouse; and she shadowed James Whitmore Jr. on MADAM SECRETARY (CBS) and Sarah Boyd on 9-1-1 (FOX).

Sabina is the Annenberg Scholar, a member of Film Fatales, Women in Film, WIMPS, and Free the Work, and was recently selected for the Ryan Murphy Half Directing Mentorship, the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony, and the Stowe Story Labs, where she won the Tangerine Fellowship.