Biography

Maria Ibrahimova's debut film, the documentary Miss Gulag (2007), was produced with support from the Sundance Institute and the Ford Foundation. It premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival (2007) in the Panorama section, and screened at 40 festivals and on TV around the world including on the BBC. Maria also directed and produced several award-winning short films, and documentaries as well as commercial work through her production company Cinex, based in Baku, Azerbaijan. She recently produced her first feature film, The Fisherman's Daughter (2020), with Russian producer Alexander Rodnyansky (Leviathan (2014), Loveless (2017)), distributed by Wild Bunch and premiering at the Moscow International Film Festival (2020). Currently, she is developing her directorial feature debut HAZEL EYES with Turkish producer Zeynep Özbatur Atakan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011), Winter Sleep (2014)), which she presented to international co-producers at the Berlinale Co-Production Market (2020). Most recently Maria produced We Are Russia (2019) a documentary about the youth movement that supports the recently poisoned activist Alexei Navalny. Directed by Alexandra Dalsbaek, the film premiered at the Visions du Reel film festival in 2020 and will have its North American premiere at DOCNYC. Maria is also developing the documentary DREAMER, about an all-girls football team in rural Azerbaijan, directed by Imam Hasanov (Holy Cow (2015)).

Maria is a two-time Berlinale Talent, a EWA Mentee (European Women's Network), and a Fulbright Fellowship recipient. With the American Embassy in Baku, she created Women in Motion, a program bringing Azerbaijani female filmmakers into the film industry. She is also a founding member of the Andrew Berends Film Fellowship providing financial and professional support to emerging documentary filmmakers.
- IMDb mini biography by: Gulnar Nagieva