ABOUT

Monika Navickaitė is an award-winning Lithuanian film writer-director based in Scotland, deeply committed to crafting intimate, female-led narratives rooted in Eastern European identity and lived experience.

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Her films have screened internationally: her debut fiction short Little Jerusalem (2017) was selected by festivals including Vancouver International Film Festival, InShort Film Festival, and Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris, among others. Her latest short, Flowers, So Many Flowers (2023), was nominated for the Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize at Glasgow Short Film Festival. In 2025, her upcoming short 2017 (in development) won the main prize at Screen Talent Europe Pitching Forum.

 

A graduate of the University of Edinburgh’s BA (Hons) Film and Television programme with First-Class Honours, Monika complements her creative practice with leadership across the screen and cultural industries. She is the Co-Founder and Festival Co-Director of Edinburgh’s ShortScape Film Festival, a CIC dedicated to championing emerging Scottish filmmakers, and works as Programme Assistant at the Oscar-qualifying Vilnius Short Film Festival, contributing to the curation of international competition programmes. She has also written widely as a film critic, with work published in Talking Shorts and several Lithuanian outlets.

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Monika also works as a Marketing, Media & Communications Lead at Be United, a Creative Scotland-funded SCIO advocating for, nurturing, and championing Black creatives in Scotland’s performing arts, screen, and cultural events sectors. In this role, she oversees communications strategy and brand development, and leads a team of young professionals, providing mentorship and career development as part of Be United’s mission.