“As a director and artist, the journey towards making a film is in part a journey towards self-discovery, giving me the opportunity to delve deep within and reveal a part of myself and express that through my unique creative vision for a film.
I am excited about the power of film to unite people and transcend culture while at the same time a film can open a window of experience into values and cultures you might never see. I love how film can transport an audience, take them on an emotionally rollercoaster, enraging inspiring while moving them to tears.”

Maria-Elena is an award winning film writer/director. She is a 2011 AFTA AWARD winner for her short film Meniscus. She was awarded the Writers Guild Ireland Award 2019.

Maria-Elena was a director with one of Ireland’s leading commercial production companies, Pull The Trigger.

In November 2006, Maria-Elena was inspired to make her first short film Rain. Rain is a mix of live action, compositing and 3d animation which draws upon New Zealand’s landscape and indigenous culture.

Rain has received the Atlantis award for best foreign animation at the Moondance International Film Festival. Rain was selected as the best of the Zebra poetry film festival in the Interfilm International Short film festival Berlin 2008.

Maria-Elena received an AFTA Award for her second short film Meniscus 2011. Meniscus has screened at festivals worldwide and has been in competition at the prestigious Annecy Animation Festival France, the Stockholm International Film Festival and the Guanajuato International Film Festival Mexico. In 2013 Meniscus won best International Short Film at the Eco-Film Fest Mexico.

In 2012 Maria-Elena completed her third short ”Inorganic” written by Nick Ward, funded by the NZ Premier shorts film fund. In 2014 Inorganic was selected for competition at the Badalona International film festival, Barcelona. Inorganic had its debut screening at the Galway International Film festival Ireland 2014.

In February 2013 Maria-Elena participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus, Berlin.

In 2016 Maria-Elena directed Goodbye,Darling, written by crime novelist Alex Barclay. Goodbye, Darling premiered at ADIFF 2016 as part of the After’16 programme commemorating the 1916 Rising in Ireland.

In 2017 Maria-Elena won the AERLINGUS FILM-MAKER AWARD. In 2018 Maria-Elena was a Gold Kahuna Winner at Honolulu film awards.