Ukrainian documentary film director. She was born and works in Kyiv. She graduated from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (degree in Culturology) and from the Central European University (degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology). Creating her film works, Maria Stoianova actively works with vernacular videos, materials from home, and public archives (short films "Ma" 2017, "The Second Wave" 2020, the project of the feature film "Fragments of Ice" 2022).

At the Center for Urban History, she stays on her creative residence with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. During the residence, Maria will view videos from the VHS collection of the Center's Urban Media Archive, and discover the possibilities of their re-actualization and recontextualization. Inspired by one of them, the director will develop the concept of a short film, which will be presented to the public at the end of the residency in the format of work-in-progress.