Nana Janelidze was born on August 7, 1955 in Tbilisi. In 1979, she graduated from Shota Rustaveli Tbilisi Theatrical Institute (now Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University), where she studied filmmaking under Tengiz Abuladze. In 1981, she started working as a filmmaker at Kartuli Filmi (Georgian Film Studio). She is a winner of State Prize of Georgia and Jakob Gogebashvili pedagogical prize for her film Iavnana (Lullaby). She has also twice won Nika Award of Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, for a screenplay of “Monanieba” (Repentance) in 1987 and for the best foreign film “Netavi iq teatri aris?! “ (Will There Be A Theatre Up There).
Nana Janelidze is a winner of numerous international film festivals including Pazero (Italy), Lagovo (Poland), Moscow, Ialta (Russia), Montpelier (France), Wiesbaden (Germany) etc. In 2005-2006, she was a member of a board of the Georgian National Film Centre and from 2013-2016, she headed the Centre. From 2012, she has been an author and presenter of cinema program on the FOLK-RADIO