Alex Nystrom is an Ojibwe filmmaker obsessed with ghosts.

He was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

Alex is developing his first feature film, Spiral, most recently as a Fellow at the 2025 Sundance Institute Native Lab. He also workshopped the screenplay at the 2025 Banff Centre Indigenous Screenwriters Residency, and received the NewFilmmakersLA 2024 NewNarratives Award to support the project.

As a director, Alex was selected and participated in the inaugural Empowering Indigenous Voices 2024 NYU Tisch Grad Film Directing Intensive in Santa Fe.

His dramatic short film, Four Nights and a Fire, premiered at Palm Springs International ShortFest 2023, where it received a Top 5 Programmer’s Pick, as well as won Best Sound Design at NewFilmmakersLA Best of 2024 Awards and a nomination for Best Drama Short. Four Nights and a Fire is now available to watch online at Short of the Week & Omeleto.

As a screenwriter, his pilot script Between was selected for the Second Indigenous Screenwriting List (2022) on The Black List, in partnership with IllumiNative and the Sundance Indigenous Program.

As a producer, his latest credits include the feature film Yasmeen’s Element (SXSW 2024), The Prince and the Pauper (MAX 2025) as part of Reframed: Next Gen Narratives, and an upcoming short film with Indeed’s Rising Voices Season 5.