Maria Hespanhol studied at Soares dos Reis Art School, in Porto, and completed her training at the School of Arts at Porto’s Católica University.
Before graduating she co-directed the short film "Felizes para Sempre" which won an Honorable Mention at the European Capital of Culture Festival 2001 - Odyssey of the Images.
In 2003 moved to Barcelona and started working on advertising.
Since 2013 she’s living in Lisbon, developing several projects like two short films: “Summerfest”, a small exercise about suspense and “Final Act” a small story about a ballet dancer adapted from her own original short story.
In between she’s working has casting director in several films and commercials mostly and also directing small charity and commercial films.
At this moment she’s finishing the post production of a stop motion short animation film, financed by ICA (Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual- Portugal) adapted from an original short story in process of editing a book.
It´s also starting to film a short documentary about the artist and co-founder of Marvilab, Jean Michel Chartiel.
www.mariahespanhol.com