Marzena Grzegorczyk PhD

Marzena is a writer, director, and producer with a strong foundation in creative development. In recent years, Marzena’s work has revolved around two main axes: developing her own writing, directing, and producing projects; and creative development for others.  She is currently filming A REPORT FROM THE PLACE WHERE NOTHING HAPPENS, a legal documentary thriller set between Europe and New York.

Marzena’s films have screened at over 80 international festivals, including Venice, the Hamptons, Mar del Plata, and the Houston International Film Festival, have been broadcast on PBS, Canal+ and have won over a dozen awards for creative excellence. She has earned recognition from the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative, Women in Film (Los Angeles), and the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship.

She has worked as a writer, director, producer, cinematographer, camera operator, and gaffer on more than 20 films, learning the craft alongside some of the most visionary figures in cinema, including Nina Foch, Robert Altman, Carlo and Eduardo Ponti, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Mark Harris.  Beyond the set, she’s brought her storytelling instincts to HBO as a creative development consultant, and to OpenAI, where she crafted complex, high-level questions to train advanced language models.

Marzena is the author of Private Topographies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and has published numerous articles on Latin American and European literature and cinema, critical theory, visual culture, and the art of screenwriting.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, she was educated at the University of Budapest, Stanford University (PhD in Latin American & Comparative Literature), and the USC School of Cinematic Arts (MFA in Film Production, with a concentration in directing and cinematography).

She is currently based in Atlanta.