Kulumbegashvili was born in Oriol, Russia (Oryol),[1] and raised in a small town called Lagodekhi at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia.

Her filmmaking has been informed by her experience of growing up in a place with such a mix of ethnicities and nationalities.

[2] She went to New York, where she enrolled in the Media Studies course at The New School, before earning a Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing at Columbia University School of the Arts,[3] where she enrolled in 2014.

[5] She was co-writer and co-producer, with Rati Oneli (who also directed), of the feature-length documentary City of the Sun (2015–2017).

[7] Kulumbegashvili received a 2022 Baumi Script Development Award for her second feature film, then known as Historia, about an abortion provider in rural Georgia.