Niovilla was the first Polish woman to direct a film and – at the same time – the only female film director of the silent film era in Poland. She debuted in 1918 in Berlin, where she directed the movie "Die Heiratsannonce", under a pseudonym Nina von Petry. Her first Polish film was "Tamara", also known as "Obrońcy Lwowa" (1919), which she directed after returning to Poland. With its use of the Battle of Lemberg as the background of the plot, "Tamara" had a patriotic theme, which was a popular motif in Polish filmmaking at the time. As with all the films that followed, Niovilla wrote the script herself.