Anastasia Babenko is a former journalist from Ukraine. During her time in news production, she developed great empathy for her subjects and a knack for picking up on the nuances and idiosyncrasies that define individuals. Her work explores human connection at its most intimate. Anastasia’s first narrative short film, The Diaper Cake (2021), was supported by a UN Women grant and played over a dozen of Oscar-qualifying film festivals. The same year, she directed an Anton Belinskiy FW 2021 video for Paris Fashion Week.

Anastasia is invigorated by Ukrainian Poetic Cinema, a movement from the 60s rooted in rich symbolism and a search for national identity. She is currently at work on her next short, which will be set in the Pacific Northwest, and include story elements that reference the lives of displaced refugees from the war in her homeland.