Nadira Ilana is a Malaysian filmmaker, independent film programmer and writer of mixed indigenous Dusun as well as Bruneian Malay heritage from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Ilana was born and raised in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, and earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film & TV from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia,[citation needed] after attending Montclair State University in New Jersey for a year, during which time she interned at film and documentary production houses in Manhattan.

[citation needed] In 2016, Nadira was part of the Big Stories, Small Towns project.

[2] In 2017 her short documentary titled, 'Anak Pokok/Saplings', which was produced in collaboration with Tropical Rainforest and Research Conservation Centre won first runner up at the SXSW Community screening for Rainforest Partnership´s Films for the Forest judged by Richard Linklater and Raveena Tandon.

[citation needed] The Sabahan filmmaker was a judge for Projek Dialog's Pesta Filem Kita, Petron Vision in 2017 as well as the Malaysian short film competition, BMW Shorties from 2016 to 2019.