Mária Takács is a Hungarian documentary director, video journalist, and civil activist who combined her training at the Hungarian Film Academy with a double major in history and geography at Eötvös Loránd University. She worked for Hungarian Television until 2008, and for 20 years has been making videos and documentaries for NGOs, mainly those serving Hungarian LGBTQ and other civil communities. She was an event coordinator and selection committee member of the Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. Having run a feminist film club since 2008, she is also a founding member of Labrisz Lesbian Association (1999–) and the Budapest Lesbian Film-committee (2000–2004). Her mission is to raise awareness and to support human rights through the language of film.

Her first feature-length documentary, Secret Years, was about lesbians who lived through state socialism. Her 2020 film, Game On – Queer Disruptions in Sport, was awarded three prizes at various festivals, and 2015’s Hot Men Cold Dictatorships was awarded prizes in Romania and Jakarta. The latter documentary (on how Hungarian society and the state have treated gay men and how their personal experiences of social and political oppression have changed since communism) is very timely, given that today’s political system is growing ever similar to the communist dictatorships… She has a profound interest in life stories and believes that showing the life of a real human being is more interesting and valuable than any Oscar-winning fiction film.