Rita Baghdadi (she/her) is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker known for the intimacy of her character-driven documentaries. Her film Sirens, executive produced by Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph, premiered at Sundance 2022 and was praised by critics as “utterly charming” and “a documentary so slick it feels more like narrative perfection.” The film was distributed theatrically across the US and is now available on VOD. Other recent films include Finding the Light (Disney+, 2024), which was nominated for two Cinema Eye Honors and an Independent Spirit Award; My Country No More (Independent Lens, 2019); and City Rising (2018), winner of the Emmy Award for Best Social Issue Film. Rita is co-founder of the production company Lady & Bird Films. She is currently working on several new films including Stallions, filming in Morocco with funding from Chicken & Egg Films, Sundance, Catapult Film Fund, and Firelight Media. Rita is a Concordia Fellow, a Sundance Momentum Fellow, and a Film Independent Fellow; she was on DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 list and is a member of the Director’s Guild of America.

Rita's CEA projects are Stallions and Les Hijabeuses.