Core Team
Kristina Nikolova
FOUNDER
Director, cinematographer, and producer
Born in communist Bulgaria, Kristina Nikolova grew up in a family of cinematographers. She left home at 18 to study economics at the University of Chicago but ended up getting a BA in film theory instead. She shot her first feature film at age 20 and worked for several years as a cinematographer before going to NYU's Grad Film program where she directed five and shot 14 award-winning shorts. Kristina’s directorial feature debut Faith, Love and Whiskey premiered at Slamdance 2012, and went on to win many awards including the Main Jury Prize at the Dallas International Film Festival and Best Debut Feature at the 21st Annual St. Louis International Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Debut Feature by the Bulgarian Film Academy. Next, she shot and produced her husband and collaborator Paul's first feature Touched with Fire (starring Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby), which premiered at SXSW 2015.
Kristina is currently finalizing her feature documentary In Hell With Ivo and shooting another feature documentary, Project CETI, and is in development on her second directorial feature, Amphibia, which is a love story set in a climate-changed world. She currently resides in New York City with Paul and their two children.
Paul Dalio
FOUNDER
Director, writer, composer, and performer
Paul is a New York-based writer, director and composer. He received his BA in screenwriting at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and MFA at the NYU graduate filmmaking program where he met his wife and collaborator, Kristina, as well as his professor, Spike Lee who became a mentor and executive producer of his debut feature, Touched with Fire, inspired by Paul's struggle overcoming bipolar. Paul wrote, directed, scored and edited the film which premiered at SXSW 2015 and was released theatrically in February 2016. It was critically well received, a New York Times Critic's Pick. The film had a big impact on the mental health community, receiving 11 awards from a variety of mental health organizations. Paul is currently working on a multi-media project combining short form, film and TV, produced by Jon Avnet, dealing with the conflict in the Middle East. Paul does public speaking and advocacy work with mental health organizations and lives in New York with his wife and two children.
Jon Avnet
Advisory Director
Jon Avnet has directed, written and produced nearly 60 motion pictures, television movies and Broadway plays over the last 30 years, from box office hits like "Risky Business," "Fried Green Tomatoes," and "Black Swan" to the critically acclaimed "Uprising," "Justified," and "The Starter Wife" and the Tony Award-winning "The History Boys" and "Spamalot." His work has won or been nominated for Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and the Directors Guild of America Awards, as well as the WGA Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Peabody, Humanitas, Tonys, Drama Desk Awards, Television Critics Awards and Cable ACE Awards.
Amelita Lijek
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
Amelita is the Director of Operations at LunaClipse Media. After graduating from NYU Steinhardt with a degree in Music Business in 2010, she built a varied background including in film and television production, C-suite administration, running a freelance business, and customer service. Since joining the company as the first non-founder member in 2016, Amelita has helped to build the company’s infrastructure with a focus on scalability. If there are questions related to LunaClipse, Amelita has the answers. And if somehow she doesn’t, she knows where to get them.
