Andrea Blaugrund Nevins is an Academy Award®-nominated, Emmy®-winning director, producer and writer. Nevins’ keen interest in lives-in-transition led her to chronicle retired dancers given a late-in-life chance to perform. Still Kicking, her first independent documentary, earned her an Academy Award nomination. Her first feature-length documentary, The Other F Word, about anti-authoritarian punk rockers donning the cloak of paternal authority, premiered at SXSW and won quick theatrical distribution by Oscilloscope and network broadcast on Showtime.
In examining the huge transitions NFL football players make from superstardom to relative invisibility, she directed the 2014 season-opener for Peter Berg’s HBO series State of Play. Entitled “Happiness,” the episode follows NFL greats Brett Favre, Tiki Barber and Wayne Chrebet as they transition to second chapters. Her feature Play It Forward grew out of this work. It follows NFL Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez and his brother Chris at mid-life as their dreams and sacrifices for NFL glory collide. This film was selected to open 2015’s Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival and was featured on Showtime. Play It Forward was also selected by the U.S. Department of State as part of its film diplomacy program, American Film Showcase.
Critically acclaimed Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie, a Hulu original documentary that premiered in April 2018 at Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs and on Hulu, is a funny, revealing documentary exploring 60 years of popular culture through the lens of an 11.5-inch plastic female avatar. It won a 2019 Realscreen Award as well as inclusion in 2019’s American Film Showcase. The film goes inside Mattel, Inc. with the Barbie team as they rethink the doll’s role in the hotly contested space of women today. Nevins is partnering with Bron Studios on a feature film about Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler.