Screenwriter and director for film and television, she had a degree in Media and Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid. After starting her professional activity in film journalism, she developed an extensive career in television as a producer of series and shows including fiction (like the TVmovie ‘El paraíso’), cultural programmes (such as ‘La isla del tesoro’ or ‘Un día en la vida de nuestros antepasados’) and, above all, documentaries (‘Todo el mundo es música’, ‘Al otro lado del silencio’, ‘Paraísos cercanos’, ‘Un país en la mochila’ or ‘Equinoccio’).
In 2000 she directed her first fiction feature film, ‘I Know Who You Are’, premiered at the Berlin Festival, for which she was nominated for the Goya award in the category Best New Director. This was followed by ‘The Impatient Alchemist’ (2002, Film Writers Circle award for Best Adaptation); ‘Para que no me olvides’ (2005, selected in Berlin, Mar del Plata or Karlovy Vary, and nominated for three Goya awards); ‘Señora de’ (2009, documentary awarded in the Time of History section of the 54th Seminci); ‘The Wild Ones’ (2012, winner of the Golden Biznaga and Best Screenplay at the Malaga Festival), and ‘Thi Mai’ (2017, her first comedy and an audience hit in theatres and platforms) —all screened at Seminci. She is also the author of the medium-length films ‘El primer día’ (2015), ‘El amane - cer de Misrak’ (2010, shot in Ethiopia) and ‘El secreto major guardado’ (2004, shot in India).
A founding member of CIMA, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Film Academy and lectured in Film Direction at ECAM, as well as teaching at other institutions such as ESCAC in Barcelona and the Montevideo Film School. In 2022, she served as an International Jury member at Seminci and received the Comadre de Cine Award at the Gijón Festival. In 2023 Seminci tried to award her its Honorary Spike, but her advanced illness prevented it. After her death at the end of 2023, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media Creators named the CIMA Patricia Ferreira Award after her to provide annual recognition for the promotion and encouragement of gender equality in the audiovisual sector. Her latest work, recently released on TVE, was as of the series ‘Las Abogadas’, directed by Juana Macías and Polo Menárguez. She received the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts in 2024.