Silvana Santamaria is a film director, screenwriter, and producer of German-Italian descent who resides in Berlin, Germany. She earned a degree in Film Directing from the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in 2010. During her studies, Santamaria gained global recognition with her documentaries "Status:geduldet" (winner of the Young European CIVIS Prize, and nominated in the German competition at Dok Leipzig) and "Nowhere.Kosovo" (which won the Max-Ophüls-Prize for best Documentary). In 2013, she co-founded the film production company SOILFILMS. Since 2007, Santamaria has regularly collaborated with TV channels and streaming services such as ARTE, ZDF, BR, 3Sat, SWR, ARD DEGETO, MBC, and Netflix, as well as with German and international partners. Film finances, distributors, and sales are combined. She has won significant national and international awards with her films, which were showcased at A-Festivals globally including Cannes, San Sebastian, Karlovy Vary, Warsaw, Rotterdam, Cairo, Shanghai, and Venice (Market). In 2019, she was one of seven emerging female producers from Europe chosen for the EWA Network Mentorship Program. In 2023, German Films and the European Film Promotion appointed her as the German nominee for the Producers on the Move program, which promoted and showcased the work of 20 uprising European producers during the Cannes Film Festival. Santamaria is a member of the European Film Academy, the German Producer Association, and the German Director's Guild. Her latest film, PAMIR, premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and received a nomination for the 2022 European Film Award (Discovery).