NB Mager is inordinately serious
Nitzan Bachar “NB” Mager is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker who makes high-concept stories about the things that keep her up at night.
She was recently named one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch for 2026.
Her first feature, RUN AMOK, starring Patrick Wilson, Margaret Cho, Elizabeth Marvel, Molly Ringwald, Yul Vasques, Bill Camp, and newcomer Alyssa Marvin, recently completed production.
Other works include the award-winning, Oscar-qualifying short film, RUN AMOK (on which the feature is based), which premiered as a Vimeo Staff Pick. The screenplay for RUN AMOK was a quarterfinalist for the Academy Nicholl and FinalDraft Big Break prizes.
Her web anthology series, QUARANTINE, I LOVE YOU took part in the Beyond Film program of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and starred Ali Wentworth, Denis O’Hare, Michael Chernus, Maria Dizzia, and Jay O. Sanders, among others.
Her short films have screened and garnered awards at film festivals across the country, as well as Gotham Film Week, and have won awards from the National Board of Review and New York Women in Film and Television. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Panavision.
NB also directed a short documentary film on Gloria Steinem, for which she interviewed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Formerly an actor, NB trained at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and at Rutgers University. She brings her passion and respect for the craft of acting to her work as a writer-director.
What were you like as a teen?I was inordinately serious. And one day when I was 18 went to an acupuncturist who was this lovely, ancient, wise woman and she said to me in a very heavy accent, “You need to have more fun.” So I took her advice very seriously.
Did you have an un-sexy starter job?I did a lot of kid-related stuff, childcare, after school, tutoring.
How have skills from non-directing jobs transferred into your directing jobs?Well, directing and childcare have a lot in common. Both require you to create a safe environment for play and exploration. And even though they’re both hard work, they should also, at the end of the day, ideally be fun.
Best comedy or directing advice you ever got?Well, it’s a cliche and/or a classic, but the whole idea of “yes, and” applies to comedy, to acting, to directing, to filmmaking. It’s about being open to inspiration, to collaboration— and there’s also something inherently funny about taking an idea and really running with it.
Worst comedy or directing advice you ever got?That’s harder to think of… because I may have blocked it out. I guess one thing is the approach to rehearsal. Some folks are afraid of it or against it because they are afraid it will rob you of spontaneity and that feeling of something happening “for the first time”. But the truth is that in film (as well as theater) you’re almost never just doing the thing once. There will be takes, angles, etc. And rehearsal, when done right, is really what ensures that you WILL have a beautiful spontaneity— because you’ve gotten so much of the thinking and discussion and questions out of the way… now you’re free to be fully in it.But I get why some folks are wary of rehearsal— because it you don’t approach it correctly, it can be very counterproductive.
How has being funny helped you in your life, either recently or when you were younger?I wasn’t really funny as a kid (see first question, above). I think that I saw being funny as something frivolous, even unintelligent, and I really wanted to be taken seriously. But as I’ve grown, I’ve come to appreciate how important humor is— to me personally, as a way of making life just generally better and more enjoyable. And then as a creative tool— being funny is often a way of being honest, humor helps us deal honestly with hard and complicated things.
How do you as a director approach bringing out the comedy in a project?Well, as I said, I think comedy is strongest when it is honest. Sure, there’s room for slapstick and potty humor… but in my own work, the comedy comes out of the truth of the moment. And the characters never know they’re being funny. They never try to be funny. The funny is just incidental, and often it’s really uncomfortable and strange.
On your deathbed, what transcendent advice would you croak at an aspiring director?Just do the work.
What is your go-to show?Recently, I’ve loved Slow Horses, The Diplomat.
What single word always cracks you up?Wow, if I had a word like that, I’d be a happier woman. I dream of having a word that consistently cracks me up.I love laughing. And I wish more things made me laugh. But as they say, drama is easy, comedy is hard.
