Elmar Imanov was born 1985 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. He came to Germany with his family in 1998, where they settled down in Cologne. It‘s been his hometown since then. Here, he finished high school. After his biology teacher advised him against taking up biology courses at the university, which he planned on doing back then, he entered the film-scene by volunteering for a film project, run by the same teacher.
He began studying directing in 2006 at the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln. An internship brought him back to Azerbaijan, where, between 2006 and 2008, he spent half a year working on different film productions. In 2012 he finally finished his course, obtaining the Bachelor of Arts in Directing.
His graduation film The Swing of the Coffin Maker (2012) was presented on over 100 film festivals and won 30 awards worldwide including the Student Academy Award (Student Oscar®). His next short film TORN (2014) had its world premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.
Both films were produced by Eva Blondiau with whom he founded the production company COLOR OF MAY.