Mara Cracaleanu is a Romanian-born film director and screenwriter. Coming from a very diverse artistic background, her experiences in the art world are reflected in her films. She performed at the Romanian National Opera Junior choir for 7 years, in operas such as La Bohème, Tosca, Carmen. Her first role in a feature film was in a Romanian production, Scoala de vara. She was an actress in a French theater group, where she received an award for best feminine interpretation in a play based on the book To Kill a Mockingbird. She also won an award for the role of Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. She won an award for her first short film in French, Solitude. Her second short film, Fantasy Dust, was part of a competition at Los Angeles Film Festival. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Danny Elfman. Her third project, Mirrorcide, a drama about teenagers and their own image was screened on several continents and has won over 30 international awards. Her fourth personal project, The Cry Of Silence, is a Romania-UK production, a meditation on life and death, which has been screened in multiple countries and has reached international recognition. She has worked on various other projects, including documentaries, screenplays, fashion films and stage plays, and is actively involved in numerous productions and as a film festival jury member at three US-based film festivals. She is a member of Women In Film and Television UK. Mara is also the founder of the London-based film production company Melancholia Pictures.