After working for several years as a producer and a communication and development manager in film and television, Maria Drandaki founded her own production label Homemade Films in 2009.
With a taste for sharp, cutting edge, innovative cinema, Maria has produced and co-produced several successful short and feature films, which participated and won awards in many major international film festivals and film events (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Toronto, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, IDFA, Palm Springs, EFA, BAFTA, etc.) and got distributed in movie theatres, streaming platforms and TV-channels around the world.
Her credits include Syllas Tzoumerkas’ feature films Homeland, A Blast and The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, Yorgos Zois’ Interruption, Emre Yeksan’s The Gulf, Nikos Labôt’s Her Job, Nely Reguera’s The Volunteer, Christos Passalis’ and Syllas Tzoumerkas’ co-direction, The City and the City, Christos Passalis’ Silence 6-9, as well as the multi-awarded short films Limbo and Electric Swan by Konstantina Kotzamani and A Drowning Man by Mahdi Fleifel.
Her latest production, Sofia Exarchou’s sophomore feature Animal was awarded with the Pardo for Best Performance for Dimitra Vlagopoulou at the International Competition of the 76th Locarno International Film Festival 2023, and her latest minority co-production, Mladen Djordjević’s socio-horror satire Working Class Goes to Hell had its world premiere at the Midnight Madness section of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
Her in-development and in-production projects include the upcoming feature films by Mahdi Fleifel (Men in the Sun), Christos Karakepelis (Future Tenses and Death Plan for a Dog and a Man), Konstantina Kotzamani (Titanic Ocean), Nikos Kyritsis (Baby), Elina Psykou (Patrimonial Fears and Other Symptoms), Syllas Tzoumerkas (My Soul Startled) and Yorgos Zois (Arcadia).
She is a member of the EAVE and ACE producers’ networks and the Greek Producers’ Alliance.