Maria Iliou was born Born in Athens in 1960. She is an award-winning film director from Greece currently living in New York. Maria was born in Athens,Greece and studied Literature and Philosophy at the University of Padova, Italy. She studied filmmaking at the Ipotesi Film School in Italy and in 1988 she won a scholarship enabling her to continue her film studies in Rome and worked as the assistant director of Giuseppe and Bernardo Bertolucci on many full-length feature films in Italy. She later returned to Athens where her directorial credits include Alexandria (2001, Houston Film Festival Platinum Award, USA), Tris Epoches (Three Seasons, 1997, Würzburg Festival Prize for Best Film, Germany), Stop the Bombs, Aegean, Seaward Window (1992, Instituto Luce Award, Italy), and Encounter (1989, Greek Ministry Culture Award of Best Films). Maria came to New York in 2003 on a Fulbright Professional Grant to develop her upcoming feature film "A Friendship in Smyrna." In 2004, she worked with Marketa Kimbrell in the "Directors Workshop" at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She is the founder of the Proteus Foundation in Athens. Maria is a member of the European Film Academy.