DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY - Maria Hatzakou

Maria Hatzakou is a Greek film writer/director and producer based in Athens, Greece. ​She was awarded a BA in Film and Video at the London College of Printing before going on to work extensively as a film programmer at the Athens International Film Festival (2000-2004), and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (co-coordinating the “Independence Days” section, 2005-2008). In 2007, she joined Haos Film as a producer — a pioneering filmmaker-run production and post-production studio based in Athens, founded by Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari. She has worked closely with Athina Rachel Tsangari on a number of projects. Attenberg, her first producer credit, premiered in main competition at the Venice Film Festival. In 2012, she produced Tsangari’s The Capsule, that premiered at dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, and went on to screen in competition at the Locarno, Toronto and Sundance film festivals. In 2013, she produced 24 Frames Per Century, Tsangari’s sci-fi short for the Venice Film Festival’s commemorative anniversary project “Venezia 70 — Future Reloaded”. Their latest feature production, Chevalier won Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival. In addition to her work with Tsangari, she has collaborated with a variety of directors and artists. She co-produced Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps, which premiered in main competition at the 2011 Venice Film Festival and was one of the main producers on Georgis Grigorakis’ Digger, which premiered in the Panorama section of the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival. In 2011, she was selected to take part in the European Film Promotion’s “Producers on the Move” forum, held at the Cannes Film Festival. And in 2016 and 2017, she acted as a script consultant for the Faliro House Sundance Mediterranean Screenwriter Workshop, hosted in Greece by producer Christos V. Konstantakopoulos in partnership with Athina Rachel Tsangari. She is a Sundance and an Oxbelly alumna. In 2021 she funded hew own production company MERRICAT and premiered her first short film as a writer/director, titled Amygdala, at the 44th Drama International Film Festival. The film has made a successful festival run (Thessaloniki IFF, Trieste FF, Tampere FF, Inside Out FF, Toronto, Shortwaves FF, Crossing Europe Linz FF, Palm Spring IFF Shortfest, Best Short Award, Sicilia Short FF) and is still playing in festivals. Her second short film 7Hz a dystopian sci-fi story, premiered at the Brussels International Short Film Festival (2024). Her 3rd short Starflyer, will have its world premiere at the Palm Springs Shortfest (2026). Her 4th short film Talking Heads is in the final stages of post-production. Maria is currently developing two feature films are a writer/director. Starflyer (based on the short) and Stringa (written by fellow filmmaker Alexandra Matheou and produced by Maria Drandaki Homemade Films). Stringa won the Post production award at the Agora Crossroad Co-production forum at the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2023.