Biljana Garvanlieva is a freelance director of documentary films who lives and works in Skopje and Berlin. Born in Skopje in 1973, she studied dramaturgy in Macedonia before receiving a grant in 1999 from the German Academic Exchange Service to study theatre and film at the Free University of Berlin (Freien Universität Berlin). In 2006 she directed her first documentary for the TV network 3sat, entitled Macedonian Dream. A Girl and her Accordion, which has won several awards, including the Golden Lola German Short Film Award. In 2009 she followed up her first success with Tobacco Girl, which has received numerous awards for its direction, including nominations for the Golden Lola and the Juliane Bartel German Media Award. In 2010, Garvanlieva was awarded the Heart of Sarajevo prize for Best Documentary at the 16th Sarajevo film Festival for her documentary film The Seamstresses.