Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Alysa Nahmias, Director of Cookie Queens

Filmmaker Alysa Nahmias brings her documentary Cookie Queens to a world premiere in the Premieres section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, according to the sources. The project originated when Nahmias accepted a family challenge from her pre-teen children, who asked her to make a documentary they would actually want to watch with their friends, as recalled by the director.

Inside the Making of Cookie Queens

Following four ambitious Girl Scouts across the United States during a fiercely competitive cookie-selling season, Cookie Queens examines self-confidence, determination, and community dynamics in contemporary girlhood. Nahmias and her crew captured slice-of-life footage of the featured girls—Nikki, Ara, Olive, and Shannon Elizabeth—alongside their families and troops.

According to the director, the creative vision for the documentary required telling the entire story in the present tense from the point of view of the children, without relying on traditional interviews. That choice meant keeping a consistent four-person crew on the road for a months-long endurance project across multiple locations, including a low-rider car show in Texas, an etiquette class in North Carolina, and a farmer’s market in San Diego.

Collaborative Production and Sundance History

Cinematographer Antonio Cisneros maintained camera work at the eye level of the young subjects to capture their fluid transitions between imagination and reality, while editors Jeanne Applegate and Kim Roberts shaped the footage during post-production. The project’s first funding was raised through the Sundance Catalyst community, where Nahmias previously served as a producing advisor in 2019 for the documentary The Truffle Hunters, meeting her future Cookie Queens producers Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw.

Nahmias has a long-standing history with the Sundance Institute. Her first feature documentary, Unfinished Spaces, premiered in the 2012 Sundance Film Forward global festival initiative, and her work was subsequently supported by the 2019 Sundance Momentum Fellowship and Women at Sundance programs. She has also contributed as a mentor for various labs and workshops, including the Documentary Producing Fellowship and the Women’s Financing Intensive.