India Donaldson

India is the daughter of Mel Clark and director Roger Donaldson; she gained exposure to the film industry at an early age.^[2][3] Her parents divorced when she was a child. She attended Santa Monica High School and Vassar College, where she majored in English.^[4][5]

Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Donaldson worked in the textile industry.^[2] Her directorial debut, the 2018 short film Medusa, was followed by the short films Hannahs and If Found in 2019 and 2021, respectively.^[6][7][8]

Donaldson presented her feature-length debut Good One as a work-in-progress at the 2023 American Film Festival in Wrocław, where she was awarded a $50,000 prize to support the project's post-production in Poland.^[9] The completed film screened at 2024 Sundance Film Festival and the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it was eligible for the Camera d'Or.^[10][11] The film later won the Grand Jury Prize for Best American Independent Feature Film at that year's Champs-Élysées Film Festival.^[12]

In 2025, it was announced that her next film would be The Chaperones, produced by A24, with David Jonsson, Cooper Hoffman and Paul Dano in lead roles.^[13]

Donaldson resided in New York for ten years. Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles, where they currently reside.^[4][9] The couple lived with India's father, his third wife, and their two teenage children during the COVID-19 lockdowns. India's experiences living with her young half-siblings inspired the plot of Good One.^[4] Around this time, she gave birth to her son.^[5]

Short film

Feature film