Katie Holmes: ''Huge Success'' Is Great, but Family Is Most Important

Actress makes her directorial debut with a short film about former Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci

Move over Steven Spielberg—there's a new director in town!

And her name is Katie Holmes.

Yup, the former Dawson's Creek star has gone behind the camera to make her directing debut with Eternal Princess, a short doc about legendary Romanian Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci.

"Nadia is such world icon," Holmes told us at the film's premiere earlier today at the Tribeca Film Festival. "She achieved perfection at 14, and I've always been in awe and she's also been a huge hero of mine."

Comaneci was just 14 years old when she became the first female gymnast to earn a score of a perfect 10 at the Olympics at the 1976 games in Montreal.

"Nadia is such a wonderful human being, perfection on all levels and just cool and funny and she's a great mom," Holmes said. "She's taught me that it's great to have huge success but the most important thing is her family."

Comaneci admitted she had been asked "many times" to do a documentary about her life before Holmes came calling. "I thought I need to find the right person at the right time because it is my life," Comaneci said. "I was very comfortable when she called me. We were on the phone for 45 minutes and she told me about the project and I really liked that she was trying to know me and who I am."

They two women now consider each other friends. So much so that Holmes brought daughter Suri Cruise (who turns nine tomorrow) to Comaneci's L.A.-area beach home to play with Dylan Paul, her eight-year-old son with her husband, fellow former Olympic gymnast husband Bart Conner.

Holmes is getting ready to direct a feature film, All We Had, a drama about a mother (Holmes) and a daughter living in poverty. It's an adaptation of writer Annie Weatherwax's debut novel of the same name.

"I really enjoy the process of directing," she said. "I like hearing different people's stories. I like to hear what people have to say. I'm excited to get behind the camera again and being a part of telling a narrative and really listening to the actors."