
Roxy Toporowych is a first-generation Ukrainian-American filmmaker based in NY/LA. Her work is heavily influenced by a world of immigrants, war stories and pierogies.
Roxy's narrative directing debut, JULIA BLUE, was written and directed while a Fulbright Scholar living in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is an IFP Narrative Lab Directing Fellow 2016 and the recipient of the IFP Gotham Calvin Klein 'Live the Dream' grant for emerging female directors 2016.
JULIA BLUE premiered in competition at the Cleveland International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Off-Camera Film Festival, Molodist FF, Glasgow IFF, Byron Bay FF and Berkshires International Film Festival during the 2018-2019 circuit. Julia Blue was a part of Rooftop Films Works in Progress Screenings 2018 and Seattle WIP Labs 2017 and was awarded a Women In Film Finishing Fund grant in early 2018.
Roxy won the Special Jury Prize for Best Director World Cinema at the Woodstock Film Festival 2018 and the Best Director Award at the Sonoma International Film Festival 2019. The film has won awards for Best Film at the Anchorage International Film Festival 2018, Julien Dubuque International Film Festival 2019 and Cambria Film Festival 2020 and Best Foreign Film at the Female Eye Festival, 2019. In 2022, the film was named one of the ten best films about Ukraine by The Guardian.
Previously, Roxy directed the dance documentary feature Folk! and web series, 2nd & 9th and as a producer for Tribeca Film Festival she created the show Awkward Dance Party. Roxy is graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and has worked in film and TV set decoration for over 15 years. Credits include: Captain America: Winter Soldier, The Other Guys, Saturday Night Live and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. She also spent several years in the documentary space on project such as HBO's Believer.
Roxy’s is currently a fellow at the AFI DWW+ program and is post-production on her narrative short, UKRAINIAN DANCE MOVIE. She is developing several new projects including episodic comedy, The Party!, which was a semi-finalist at SeriesFest 2021, and Ukrainian Dance Movie: The Feature, amongst many more.
*Interested in more details of my set decorating career? CLICK HERE
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
2023/2024 American Film Institute DWW+ Fellow
2020 Best Film - Cambria Film Festival
2019 Best International Feature - Mystic Film Festival
2019 Best International Feature - Female Eye Film Festival
2019 Jury Prize Winner - Best Director. Sonoma Intl FF
2018 Jury Prize Winner Best Director World Cinema, Woodstock FF
2018 Jury Prize Best Film - Julien Dubuque Film Festival
2016 IFP Narrative Lab Fellow - New York, NY
2016 IFP deepEuphoria Calvin Klein 'Live the Dream' Grant Winner
2014/15 - Fulbright Scholar - Kyiv, Ukraine
*Rooftop Films 2017 - Work In Progress
*Seattle International Film Festival 2017 - Work in Progress Forum
*Women in Film LA - Finishing Fund Recipient 2018