Maria Hatzakou is a film writer/director, producer and a musician, based in Athens, Greece. She holds a BA in Film and Video (London College of Printing) and joined the film industry by working extensively as a film programmer for the Athens IFF (2000-2004), and the Thessaloniki IFF (2005-2008). In 2007, she started working as a producer at Haos Film — a pioneering filmmaker-run production and post-production studio based in Athens. Maria has collaborated with director Athina Rachel Tsangari on a number of projects. Attenberg, her first producer credit, premièred in main competition at the Venice Film Festival. In 2012, she produced Tsangari’s The Capsule, that premièred 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) and in 2014 Chevalier which won Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival. In addition to her work with Tsangari, she co-produced Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps, which premièred in main competition at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, as well as produced Digger (Georgis Grigorakis) which opened at the Panorama section at the Berlinale 2020. In 2021 she founded her own production company MERRICAT. Its credits include Maria’s first foray into writing and directing with the short film AMYGDALA which had a successful worldwide festival run. Her second short film 7Hz (2024) had its world premiere at the Brussels Short Film Festival and her 3rd short STARFLYER, is in post-production. Her first feature film Stringa, co- written and co-directed with fellow filmmaker Alexandra Matheou won the Post production award at the Agora Crossroad Co-production forum at the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2023. Maria is a Sundace Institute and an Oxbelly Amumna. She is also the drummer of the female duo Someone Who Isn’t Me.
