Martina Priessner studied social and cultural sciences at Humboldt University in Berlin and now works as a freelance filmmaker and author based in Berlin.
Her documentary debut BASED DOWN SOUTH (ZDF/Das Kleine Fernsehspiel) premiered in 2010 in the National Competition at DOK Leipzig and was nominated for the Grimme Award in 2011.

She has received numerous fellowships and grants for her work, including from the Nipkow Program, the DEFA Foundation, the Mercator Foundation, and the Tarabya Cultural Academy. During a five-year stay in Istanbul, she completed the found-footage film EVERYDAY I´M CAPULING (2013), which engages with the Gezi Park protests.

As an IPC–Mercator Fellow, she produced the short film 650 WORDS in Istanbul in 2015, a cinematic reflection on migration and language. Her documentary THE GUARDIAN (2020), funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), premiered in the German Competition at DOK Leipzig and was awarded the Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize.

Her most recent film, THE MOELLN LETTERS (2025), celebrated its world premiere in the Panorama section of the 75. Berlinale 2025 and received the Panorama Audience Award, the Amnesty Film Award, and the Roman Brodmann Award.